How  We  Built  The 
Union  Pacific  Railway 

— — AND— — 

Other  Railway  Papers  and  Addresses 


MAJOR-GENERAL  GRENVILLE  M.  DODGE 

Chief  Engineer  Union  Pacific  Railway 
1866-1870 


COMPLIMENTS 
or 

GENERAL  GRENVILLE  M.  DODGE 


The  Monarch  Printing  Co. 
council  bluffs 

IOWA 


How  We  Built 

THE 

Union  Pacific  Railway 

AND 

Other  Railway  Papers  and 
Addresses 


BY  \\<^ 

MAJOR  GENERAL  GRENVIIv^E  M.  DODGE    ( 
Chief  Engineer  Union  Pacific  Railway 
1866-1870 


UEi 


i  v-<  I 


CONTENTS 

Page 

How  We  Built  the  Union  Pacific  Railway 5 

Address  at  the  Omaha  Centennial 51 

The  Building  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  and  Its  Relation  to 

Council  Bluffs  and  Western  Iowa 57 

Fortieth  Anniversary  of  Driving  of  the  Last  Spike 67 

What  I  Know  of  Harriman 7  5 

A  Tribute  to  General  Dodge 81 

Speech  of  G.  M.  Dodge  in  Congress,  March  25,  1868,  on  the  Union 

Pacific  Railroad    87 

The  Civil  Engineer  in  an  Early  Day  and  in  the  Civil  War 97 

Address  at  Banquet  of  Commercial  Club,  Omaha 127 

Address  on  "The  Pioneers  and  Development  of  the  West" 139 

Letter  to  the  Iowa  Railway  Club 147 

Description  of  Norwich   University 153 

Norwich  University  in  the  Civil  War 157 

Address  Before  the  Vermont  Society  of  New  York 165 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Faces  page 

Major-General  G.  M.  Dodge 5 

Dale   Creek   Bridge 17 

General  Dodge  and  Party  of  Exploration.  .  . 23 

General  Grant  and  Party  Visit  General  Dodge 31 

Temporary  Trestle,  Promontory,  Utah 33 

S.   B.   Reed 37 

General  J.  S.  Casement 38 

Six  Passenger  Trains  Snowed  In 47 

City   of   Rocks 51 

Twin  Monks 57 

Joining  of  Tracks 67 

The  Locomotives  Touched  Noses 69 

Cedar  Pass,  Utah 71 

Monument  Point,  Great  Salt  Lake 7  5 

Eagle  Nest,  Utah . 81 

Laramie   Peak,   Wyoming 83 

Laramie  River  Canyon,  Wyoming 87 

Thos.  B.  Morris  and  Party 97 

Tunnel  No.  3,  Weber  Canyon 103 

Divide  of  the  Continent ; 113 

Camp  on  Snake  River  Range 114 

Humboldt  Wells   .  . 121 

Chief  Engineer's  Office,  Omaha,   1866-70 127 

Entrance  to  North  Platte  Canyon 133 

Thousand  Mile  Tree,  Weber  Canyon,  Utah 135 

Julesburg  Stage  Station,  Wyoming,  1867 139 

Union  Pacific  Railway  Crossing,  Green  River,  Utah.  .  . 147 

General  Dodge's  Camp,  Blackfoot  Creek,  Utah.  .  . 153 

Bear  River  Bridge,  Utah 157 

Cottonwood  Grove,  Weber  Canyon,  Utah 165 


MAJOR-GENERAL    G.    M.    DODGE 
Chief   Engineer  Union   Pacific   Railway.    1866-1870 


22.001 
Bancroft  Library 


HOW  WE  BUILT  THE  UNION  PACIFIC  RAILWAY. 


In  1836  the  first  public  meeting  to  consider  the  project 
of  a  Pacific  railway  was  called  by  John  Plumbe,  a  civil  engineer 
of  Dubuque,  Iowa.  Interest  in  a  Pacific  railway  increased  from 
this  time.  The  explorations  of  Fremont  in  1842  and  1846 
brought  the  attention  of  Congress,  and  A.  C.  Whitney  was 
zealous  and  efficient  in  the  cause  from  1840  to  1850.  The  first 
practical  measure  was  Senator  Salmon  P.  Chase's  bill,  making 
an  appropriation  for  the  explorations  of  different  routes  for  a 
Pacific  railway  in  1853.  Numerous  bills  were  introduced  in  Con- 
gress between  1852  and  1860,  granting  subsidies  and  lands,  and 
some  of  them  appropriating  as  large  a  sum  as  $96,000,000  for 
the  construction  of  the  road.  One  of  these  bills  passed  one  of 
the  houses  of  Congress.  The  results  of  the  explorations  ordered 
by  Congress  were  printed  in  eleven  large  volumes,  covering 
the  country  between  the  parallels  of  latitude  thirty-second  on 
the  south  and  forty-ninth  on  the  north,  and  demonstrating  the 
feasibility  of  building  a  Pacific  railway,  but  at  a  cost  on  any 
one  of  the  lines  much  larger  than  the  Union  Pacific  and  Cen- 
tral Pacific  were  built  for.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  in  all  these 
explorations  the  most  feasible  line  in  an  engineering  and  com- 
mercial point  of  view,  the  line  with  the  least  obstacles  to  over- 
come, of  lowest  grades  and  least  curvature  was  never  explored 
and  reported  on.  Private  enterprise  explored  and  developed 
that  line  along  the  forty-second  parallel  of  latitude. 

This  route  was  made  by  the  buffalo,  next  used  by  the 
Indians,  then  by  the  fur  traders,  next  by  the  Mormons,  and 
then  by  the  overland  immigration  to  California  and  Oregon 
It  was  known  as  the  Great  Platte  Valley  Route.  On  this  trail, 
or  close  to  it,  was  built  the  Union  and  Central  Pacific  Railroads 
to  California,  and  the  Oregon  Short  Line  branch  of  the  Union 
Pacific  to  Oregon. 

In  1852  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri  Railroad  Company 
was  organized  to  build  a  line  westward  across  the  State  of 


—5— 


HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 


Iowa  as  an  extension  of  the  Chicago  and  Koek  Island,  then 
terminating  at  Rock  Island,  Illinois.  The  principal  men  con- 
nected with  this  line  were  Henry  Farnum  and  Thomas  C. 
Durant.  Peter  A.  Dey,  who  had  been  a  division  engineer  of 
the  Rock  Island,  was  the  Chief  Engineer  of  the  M.  &  M.  in 
Iowa.    He  was  a  man  of  great  ability,  probity  and  integrity. 

In  May,  1853,  Mr.  Peter  A.  Dey  left  the  Rock  Island,  of 
which  he  was  a  division  engineer  stationed  at  Tiskilwa,  and 
commenced  at  Davenport,  Iowa,  the  first  survey  of  a  railroad 
line  across  the  State  of  Iowa.  I  had  been  with  Mr.  Dey  about 
eight  months  as  rodman,  and  under  his  direction  had  made  a 
survey  of  the  Peoria  &  Bureau  Valley  Railway  in  Illinois.  Mr. 
Dey  was  made  chief  engineer  of  the  M.  &  M.,  and  took  me  to 
Iowa  as  assistant,  and  placed  me  in  charge  of  the  party  in  the 
field,  certainly  a  very  fine  promotion  for  the  limited  experience 
I  had,  and  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  satisfactions  and  pleasures 
of  my  life  to  have  had  his  friendship  from  the  time  I  entered 
his  service  until  now.  Mr.  Dey  is  not  only  a  very  distinguished 
citizen  of  Iowa,  but  is  one  of  the  most  eminent  engineers  of 
the  country.  He  was  known  for  his  great  ability,  his  upright- 
ness and  the  square  deal  he  gave  everyone,  and  he  has  greatly 
honored  his  State  in  the  many  public  positions  he  has  held. 
I  look  back  upon  my  services  with  him  with  the  greatest 
pleasure.  He  has  a  wide  reputation  as  a  civil  engineer  and 
railway  constructor,  and  in  later  years  as  Railway  Commis- 
sioner for  the  State  of  Iowa. 

In  1853  he  gave  the  orders  for  the  party  that  surveyed  the 
first  line  across  Iowa  to  examine  the  country  west  of  the  Mis- 
souri River.  This  was  to  determine  where  the  M.  &  M.  (now 
the  Rock  Island)  line  crossing  Iowa  should  terminate  on  the 
Missouri  River,  in  order  to  take  advantage  of,  and,  perhaps, 
become  a  part  of  the  prospective  line  running  west  up  the 
great  Platte  Valley,  then  the  chief  thoroughfare  for  all  the 
Mormon,  California  and  Oregon  overland  immigration.  It  fell 
to  my  lot  to  be  chief  of  this  party.  My  examinations  virtually 
determined  that  a  railway  line  extending  west  from  the  Mis- 
souri River  should  go  by  way  of  Sarpy's  Point  (now  Bellevue), 
or  directly  west  from  Kanesville,  afterwards  Council  Bluffs. 


HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  7 



where  the  Mormons  from  Nauvoo  were  then  resting  on  their 
way  to  Salt  Lake. 

My  party  crossed  the  Missouri  Kiver  in  the  fall  of  1853 
on  flat-boats.  The  Omaha  Indians  occupied  the  country  where 
we  landed,  and  after  obtaining  a  line  rising  from  the  bluffs 
west  of  where  the  city  of  Omaha  now  stands,  I  gave  directions 
to  the  party  to  continue  the  survey  while  I  went  on  ahead  to 
examine  the  country  to  the  Platte  Valley  some  twenty-five 
miles  farther  west.  I  reached  the  Platte  Valley  about  noon 
the  next  day,  and  being  very  tired,  I  lariated  my  horse  and 
laid  down  with  my  saddle  as  a  pillow  and  with  my  rifle  under 
it,  and  went  sound  asleep.  I  was  awakened  by  the  neighing 
of  the  horse  and  when  I  looked  up,  I  saw  an  Indian  leading 
the  horse  towards  the  Elkhorn  River,  pulling  with  all  his 
might  and  the  horse  holding  back,  evidently  frightened.  I  was 
greatly  frightened  myself,  hardly  knowing  what  to  do,  but  I 
suppose  from  instinct,  I  grabbed  my  rifle,  and  started  after 
the  Indian  hollering  at  the  top  of  my  voice.  The  Indian  saw 
me  coming,  let  the  horse  go  and  made  his  way  across  the  Elk- 
horn  River.  This  Indian  afterwards  was  an  enlisted  man  in 
the  battalion  of  Pawnees  that  served  under  me  in  the  Indian 
campaigns  of  1865,  and  he  told  Major  North,  the  commander 
of  that  battalion,  that  he  let  loose  of  the  horse  because  I  hol- 
lered so  loud  that  it  frightened  him.  On  obtaining  my  horse, 
I  saddled  up  and  made  my  way  back  to  the  party  that  was 
camped  on  the  Big  Papillion  on  the  emigrant  road  leading 
from  Florence  to  the  Elkhorn.  The  camp  was  full  of  Omaha 
Indians  and  they  had  every  man  in  the  party  cooking  for  them. 
I  saw  that  we  would  soon  lose  all  our  provisions,  and  as  the 
party  was  armed,  I  called  them  together  and  told  them  to  get 
their  arms.  I  only  knew  one  Indian  word,  "Puckechee,"  which 
meant  get  out.  That  I  told  them,  and  while  the  Indians  were 
surly,  they  saw  we  were  determined  and  they  left  us.  I  don't 
believe  there  was  anyone  in  the  party  that  had  ever  seen  an 
Indian  before  or  had  any  experience  with  them.  We  were  all 
tenderfeet.  It  taught  me  a  lesson,  never  to  allow  an  Indian 
in  my  camp  or  around  it  without  permission,  and  this  was  my 
instructions  to  all  our  engineering  parties.  Those  who  obeyed 
it,  generally  got  through  without  losing  their  stock  or  lives. 


HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 


Those  who  were  careless  and  disobeyed,  generally  lost  their 
stock  and  some  of  their  men.  As  soon  as  we  had  determined 
the  line  from  the  Missouri  Eiver  to  the  Platte,  we  returned 
to  Iowa  City,  which  was  the  headquarters  of  the  M.  &  M. 
Railway. 

The  times  were  such  that  the  work  on  the  M.  &  M.  Railway 
was  suspended  for  some  years.  Meanwhile  I  located  at  Council 
Bluffs,  continuing  the  explorations  under  the  direction  of 
Messrs.  Farnum  and  Durant,  and  obtaining  from  voyagers, 
immigrants  and  others  all  the  information  I  could  in  regard 
to  the  country  further  west.  There  was  keen  competition  at 
that  time  for  the  control  of  the  vast  immigration  crossing  the 
plains,  and  Kansas  City,  Fort  Leavenworth  (then  the  govern- 
ment post),  St.  Joseph  and  Council  Bluffs  were  points  of  con- 
centration on  the  Missouri.  The  trails  from  all  the  points 
converged  in  the  Platte  Valley  at  or  near  old  Fort  Kearney, 
following  its  waters  to  the  South  Pass.  A  portion  of  the  Kan- 
sas City  immigration  followed  the  Valley  of  the  Arkansas  west, 
and  thence  through  New  Mexico.  The  great  bulk  of  the  immi- 
gration was  finally  concentrated  at  Council  Bluffs  as  the  best 
crossing  of  the  Missouri  River.  From  my  explorations  and  the 
information  I  had  obtained  with  the  aid  of  the  Mormons  and 
others,  I  mapped  and  made  an  itinerary  of  a  line  from  Council 
Bluffs  through  to  Utah,  California  and  Oregon,  giving  the 
camping  places  for  each  night,  and  showing  where  wood,  water 
and  fords  of  streams  could  be  found.  Distributed  broadcast 
by  the  local  interests  of  this  route,  this  map  and  itinerary  had 
no  small  influence  in  turning  the  mass  of  overland  immigration 
to  Council  Bluffs,  where  it  crossed  the  Missouri  and  took  the 
great  Platte  Valley  route.  This  route  was  up  that  valley  to 
its  forks,  and  then  up  either  the  north  or  south  fork  to  Salt 
Lake  and  California  by  way  of  the  Humboldt,  and  to  Oregon 
by  way  of  the  Snake  and  Columbia  rivers.  This  is  today  the 
route  of  the  Union  and  Central  Pacifies  to  California,  and  the 
Union  Pacific  to  Oregon. 

After  collecting  all  the  information  we  could  as  to  the 
best  route  for  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific,  I  reported  to  Messrs. 
Farnam  and  Durant,  who  paid  out  of  their  private  funds  for 
all  mv  work.  In  1857  or  1858  they  asked  me  to  visit  New  York. 


HOW   WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC 


In  the  office  of  the  Rock  Island  Railroad,  over  the  Corn  Ex- 
change Bank  in  AVilliam  Street,  I  was  brought  before  the 
Board  of  Directors  of  that  road,  and  the  Mississippi  and  Mis- 
souri Railway,  together  with  some  friends  who  had  been  called 
in.  The  secretary  of  the  company  read  my  report.  Before  he 
was  half  through  nearly  every  person  had  left  the  room,  and 
when  he  had  finished  only  Mr.  Farnam,  Mr.  Durant,  the  reader 
and  myself  were  present.  I  could  see  that  there  was  lack  of 
faith  and  even  interest  in  the  matter.  One  of  the  directors 
said  in  the  outer  room  that  he  did  not  see  why  they  should  be 
asked  to  hear  such  nonsense,  but  Messrs.  Farnam  and  Durant 
did  not  lose  faith.  Since  our  survey  in  1853,  other  companies 
had  made  surveys  in  Iowa,  all  concentrating  at  Council  Bluffs. 
Farnam  and  Duranl  felt  that  if  they  could  stimulate  interest 
in  the  Pacific  road  it  would  enable  them  to  raise  funds  to 
complete  their  line  across  the  State,  and  authority  was  con- 
ferred upon  me  to  begin  work  at  Council  Bluffs  and  build 
east  through  Pottawattamie  County,  if  I  could  obtain  local 
aid.  This  we  secured,  and  the  road  was  graded  through  that 
county,  when  we  were  called  east  to  continue  the  work  from 
Iowa  City  west. 

In  1854,  when  Nebraska  was  organized,  we  moved  to  its 
frontier,  continuing  the  explorations  under  the  patronage  of 
Messrs.  Farnam  and  Durant,  and  obtaining  all  valuable  infor- 
mation, which  was  used  to  concentrate  the  influence  of  the 
different  railways  east  and  west  of  Chicago  to  the  support  of 
the  forty-second  parallel  line. 

In  1861  we  discontinued  the  railroad  work  because  of  the 
Civil  War.  The  passage  of  the  bill  of  1862,  which  made  the 
building  of  a  trans-continental  railroad  possible,  was  due  pri- 
marily to  the  persistent  efforts  of  Hon.  Samuel  R.  Curtis,  a 
Representative  in  Congress  from  Iowa,  who  reported  the  bill 
before  entering  the  Union  service  in  1861.  It  was  then  taken 
up  by  Hon.  James  Harlan  of  Iowa,  who  succeeded  in  obtaining 
its  passage  in  March,  1862. 

Up  to  1858,  all  the  projects  for  building  a  railroad  across 
the  continent  were  regarded  as  the  Pacific  roads ;  each  route 
mentioned  having  a  particular  name.  The  line  along  the  forty- 
second  parallel  of  latitude  was  designated  as  a  line  from  San 


10  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC 

Francisco  to  a  point  on  the  Missouri  Eiver  not  farther  north 
than  Council  Bluffs  and  not  farther  south  than  Independence, 
Missouri,  and  was  called  the  Pacific  Railroad.  The  line  sur- 
veyed by  Stephens  along  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  latitude 
was  called  the  North  Route.  The  route  along  the  thirty-eighth 
and  thirty-ninth  parallels,  as  the  Buffalo  Trail.  It  received  that 
name  from  Thomas  H.  Benton.  The  route  along  the  thirty-fifth 
and  thirty-second  parallels,  as  the  South  Route.  The  Govern- 
ment, however,  made  no  explorations  along  the  forty-second 
parallel ;  that  was  done  by  individual  enterprise.  In  1856,  both 
political  parties  in  convention  passed  resolutions  favoring  a 
Pacific  railroad,  and  in  1857,  President  Buchanan  advocated 
it  as  a  reason  for  holding  the  Pacific  Coast  people  in  the  Union, 
and  it  was  this  sentiment  that  gave  to  the  forty-second  parrallel 
line  the  name  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  In  1858,  a  select 
committee  of  fifteen  was  authorized  by  Congress  on  Pacific 
railroads  and  in  the  Thirty-fifth  Congress,  second  session,  this 
committee  allowed  the  Hon.  Samuel  R.  Curtis  of  Iowa  to  report 
the  bill,  and  if  I  recollect  rightly,  this  was  the  first  bill  that 
took  the  name  of  Union  Pacific.  In  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress, 
General  Curtis  became  the  champion  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road, and  it  was  advocated  then  as  a  strong  element  in  holding 
the  Union  together.  Curtis'  bill  passed  the  house  in  December, 
1860.  It  failed  to  become  a  law,  as  the  question,  of  secession 
was  up  then  and  Lincoln  had  been  elected  President.  In  the 
extra  session  of  the  Thirty-second  Congress  in  July,  1861, 
Curtis  reintroduced  the  bill  and  he  left  Congress  to  enter  the 
army.  When  Representative  Campbell  of  Pennsylvania  be- 
came chairman  of  the  committee,  Senator  Harlan  of  Iowa,  who 
had  been  elected  to  the  Senate,  became  the  strongest  advocate 
of  the  bill  in  the  Senate.  Lincoln  advocated  its  passage  and 
building,  not  only  as  a  military  necessity,  but  as  a  means  of 
holding  the  Pacific  Coast  to  the  Union.  This  bill  became  a 
law  in  1862,  and  there  is  no  doubt  but  what  the  sentiment  that 
the  building  of  the  railroad  would  hold  the  Union  together 
gave  it  the  name  of  the  Union  Pacific. 

The  Union  Pacific  Railway  was  organized  on  September  2, 
1862,  at  Chicago,  Major-General  S.  R.  Curtis,  of  Iowa,  being 
chairman   of  the  commissioners  appointed  by  Congress.    The 


HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  11 

organization  was  perfected  by  making  Henry  B.  Ogden,  of 
Chicago,  President;  Thomas  "W.  Olcott,  Treasurer,  and  Henry 
V.  Poor,  Secretary.  Mr.  T.  C.  Durant  selected  Peter  A.  Dey 
to  make  a  reconnoisance  from  the  Missouri  River  to  Salt  Lake 
to  be  reported  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Board.  Mr.  Dey 
immediately  entered  upon  his  work  and  extended  his  recon- 
noisance through  to  Salt  Lake  Valley. 

In  the  spring  of  1863,  when  in  command  of  the  District 
of  Corinth,  Mississippi,  I  received  a  dispatch  from  General 
Grant  to  proceed  to  Washington  and  report  to  President  Lin- 
coln. No  explanation  coming  with  the  dispatch,  and  having 
a  short  time  before  organized  and  armed  some  negroes  for 
the  purpose  of  guarding  a  contraband  camp  which  Ave  had  at 
Corinth,  which  act  had  been  greatly  criticised  in  the  army  and 
by  civilians,  I  was  somewhat  alarmed,  thinking  possibly  I  was 
to  be  called  to  account.  But  on  arriving  at  Washington  I  dis- 
covered that  my  summons  was  due  to  an  interview  between 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  myself  at  Council  Bluffs  in  August,  1859. 
He  was  there  to  look  after  an  interest  in  the  Riddle  Tract  he 
had  bought  of  Mr.  N.  B.  Judd  of  Chicago.  I  had  just  arrived 
from  an  exploring  trip  to  the  westward.  It  was  quite  an  event 
for  an  exploring  party  to  reach  the  States,  and  after  dinner, 
while  I  was  resting  on  the  stoop  of  the  Pacific  House,  Mr. 
Lincoln  sat  down  beside  me,  and  by  his  kindly  ways  soon  drew 
from  me  all  I  knew  of  the  country  west,  and  the  results  of 
my  reconnoisances.  As  the  saying  is,  he  completely  "shelled 
my  woods,"  getting  all  the  secrets  that  were  later  to  go  to 
my  employers. 

Under  the  law  of  1862  the  President  was  to  fix  the  eastern 
terminus  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  and,  remembering  our 
talk  in  the  fifties,  he  wished  to  consult  me  in  the  matter. 
Several  towns  on  the  Missouri  River  were  competing  for  the 
terminus,  but  Mr.  Lincoln  practically  settled  the  question  in 
favor  of  the  location  I  recommended.  He  issued  his  first  order 
on  November  17,  1863.  It  was  in  his  own  language,  and  as 
follows : 

"I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  do 
hereby  fix  so  much  of  the  western  boundary  of  the  State  of 
Iowa  as  lies  between  the  north  and  south  boundaries  of  the 


L2  HOW   WE   BUILT   THE   UNION    PACIFIC 

United  States  township  within  which  the  city  of  Omaha  is 
situated  as  the  point  from  which  the  line  of  railroad  and  tele- 
graph in  that  section  mentioned  shall  be  constructed." 

This  order  was  not  considered  definite  enough  by  the 
company,  and  on  March  7,  1864,  President  Lincoln  issued  the 
second  executive  order,  as  follows : 

• '  I ,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  do 
upon  the  application  of  said  company,  designate  and  establish 
such  first  named  point  on  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  State 
of  Iowa  east  of  and  opposite  to  the  east  line  of  Section  10,  in 
Township  15,  South  of  Range  13,  east  of  the  sixth  principal 
meridian  in  the  Territory  of  Nebraska." 

On  March  8,  1864,  he  notified  the  United  States  Senate 
that  on  the  17th  day  of  November,  1863,  he  had  located  the 
''Eastern  terminus  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  within  the 
limits  of  the  township  in  Iowa  opposite  to  the  town  of  Omaha." 
Since  then,  he  says  the  company  has  represented  to  me  that 
upon  additional  survey  made  it  has  determined  upon  the  pre- 
cise point  of  departure  of  the  branch  road  from  the  Missouri 
River,  and  located  same  within  the  limits  designated  in  the 
order  of  November  last. 

..  He  was  very  anxious  that  the  road  should  be  built  and  dis- 
cussed that  question  with  me. 

I  explained  to  him  as  clearly  as  I  could  how  difficult  it 
would  be  to  build  it  by  private  enterprise,  and  said  I  thought 
it  should  be  taken  up  and  built  by  the  Government.  He  ob- 
jected to  this,  saying  the  Government  would  give  the  project 
all  possible  aid  and  support,  but  could  not  build  the  road ; 
that  it  had  all  it  could  possibly  handle  in  the  conflict  now 
going  on.  But  the  Government  would  make  any  change  in  the 
law  or  give  any  reasonable  aid  to  insure  the  building  of  the 
road  by  private  enterprise. 

After  my  interview  with  the  President,  I  proceeded  to 
New  York  and  met  Mr.  T.  C.  Durant,  then  practically  at  the 
head  of  the  Union  Pacific  interests,  and  other  interested  per- 
sons. After  I  had  presented  the  President's  views  they  took 
new  courage,  and  at  the  yearly  meeting  of  the  company,  Gen- 
eral John  A.  Dix  was  made  President,  Thomas  C.  Durant,  Vice 
President,  H.  V.  Poor,  Secretary,  and  J.  J.  Cisco,  Treasurer. 


HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  13 


They  then  submitted  to  Congress  the  necessary  changes  needed 
in  the  law  of  1862,  in  order  to  bring  the  capital  of  the  country 
to  their  support. 

In  the  fall  of  1863  Mr.  Durant  had  personally  instructed 
Mr.  Dey  to  organize  parties  for  immediate  surveys  to  deter- 
mine the  line  from  the  Missouri  River  up  the  Platte  Valley,  to 
run  a  line  over  the  first  range  of  mountains,  known  as  the 
Black  Hills,  and  to  examine  the  Wasatch  range.  In  his  report 
Mr.  Durant  said:  "It  is  here  that  the  information  derived  from 
the  examinations  made  by  General  G.  M.  Dodge,  and  those 
made  last  year  by  Peter  A.  Dey,  who  was  sent  out  by  the  com- 
mittee appointed  by  your  Board  of  Commissioners,  proved  of 
great  value,  as  the  present  parties  will  avail  themselves  of  the 
examinations  made  by  these  gentlemen,  and  will  first  run  the 
lines  which  they  found  most  practicable."  In  accordance  with 
these  instructions,  Mr.  Dey  placed  B.  B.  Brayton  in  charge  of 
the  party  examining  the  Black  Hills,  and  at  Mr.  Dey's  request, 
Brigham  Young  placed  his  son,  James  A.  Young,  in  charge  of 
the  surveys  over  the  Wasatch.  Mr.  Dey,  who  had  become  chief 
engineer,  placed  engineering  parties  in  the  field  covering  the 
territory  from  the  Missouri  River  to  Salt  Lake. 

Ground  was  broken  at  Omaha  for  the  beginning  of  the 
road  on  the  1st  day  of  December,  1863,  and  after  the  passage 
of  the  Act  of  1864  about  $500,000  was  spent  in  grading  and 
surveys. 

A  question  as  to  the  location  brought  a  disturbing  contest 
between  Omaha  and  the  company.  Mr.  Dey  had  located  the  line 
due  west  to  the  Elkhorn  River.  The  consulting  engineer,  Colo- 
nel Seymour,  recommended  a  change,  increasing  the  distance 
nine  or  more  miles  in  thirteen.  The  main  argument  for  adding 
nine  miles  of  distance  in  thirteen  miles  of  road  was  that  it  elim- 
inated the  eighty  and  sixty-six  foot  grades  of  the  direct  line. 
If  this  had  been  done  there  would  have  been  some  argument  for 
the  change,  but  they  only  eliminated  the  grades  from  the  Omaha 
summit  west,  while  it  took  three  miles  of  sixty  and  sixty-six 
foot  grade  from  the  Missouri  River  to  reach  this  summit,  and 
coming  east  the  Elkhorn  summit  was  an  eighty-foot  grade,  so 
by  the  change  and  addition  of  nine  miles  they  made  no  reduc- 
tions in  the  original  maximum  grades,  or  in  the  tonnage  hauled 


14  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

in  a  train  on  the  new  lines  over  the  old  line,  if  it  had  been  built. 
The  grades  at  Omaha  and  Elkhorn  have  been  eliminated  since 
1900,  and  the  new  management  are  adopting  the  old  Dey  line 
for  the  distance  it  saves,  and  bringing  the  grade  to  the  road's 
maximum  of  forty-seven  feet  to  the  mile.  It  was  Mr.  Dey's 
intention  that  when  traffic  demanded  the  original  short  line 
grades  would  be  reduced  to  whatever  maximum  grade  the 
road  should  finally  adopt.  After  a  long  contest  and  many 
reports  the  Government  provided  that  the  change  should  only 
be  made  if  the  Omaha  and  Elkhorn  grades  were  eliminated, 
the  first  by  a  line  running  south  from  Omaha  two  miles  down 
the  Missouri  Valley  and  cutting  through  the  bluffs  to  Muddy 
Creek,  giving  a  thirty-five  foot  maximum  grade,  and  the  Elk- 
horn by  additional  cutting  and  filling  without  changing  the 
line,  but  this  was  never  done.  The  company  paid  no  attention 
to  the  decision  but  built  on  the  changed  line,  letting  the  grades 
at  Omaha  and  Elkhorn  stand,  and  the  Government  commis- 
sioners accepted  the  road,  ignoring  the  Government's  condi- 
tions for  the  change,  and  bonds  were  issued  upon  it,  although 
it  was  a  direct  violation  of  the  Government  order.  The  final 
decision  in  favor  of  the  change  and  the  ignoring  of  Mr.  Dey's 
recommendations  in  letting  the  construction  contracts,  caused 
Mr.  Dey  in  January,  1865,  to  send  in  his  resignation.  He  stated 
in  his  letter  of  resignation  that  he  was  giving  up  "the  best  posi- 
tion in  his  profession  this  country  has  offered  to  any  man." 

The  officers  of  the  Union  Pacific  then  requested  me  to 
return  and  take  charge  of  the  work.  I  was  then  in  command 
of  the  United  States  forces  on  the  plains  in  the  Indian  cam- 
paigns, and  General  Grant  was  not  willing  that  I  should  leave, 
so  I  finished  my  work  there  and  went  to  Omaha  on  the  1st  of 
May,  1866,  and  assumed  the  duties  of  chief  engineer,  having 
been  allowed  leave  of  absence  through  the  following  letter 
of  General  Sherman : 

"HEADQUARTERS  MILITARY  DIVISION  OF  THE 
MISSISSIPPI. 

"Major-General  Dodge.  "St-  Louis>  Ma^  lst>  1866- 

"Dear  General:  I  have  your  letter  of  April  27th,  and  I 
readily  consent  to  what  you  ask.   I  think  General  Pope  should 


HOW   WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC  15 

be  at  Leavenworth  before  you  leave,  and  I  expected  he  would 
be  at  Leavenworth  by  May  1st,  but  he  has  not  yet  come.  As 
soon  as  he  reaches  Leavenworth,  or  St.  Louis,  even,  I  consent 
to  your  going  to  Omaha  to  begin  what,  I  trust,  will  be  the 
real  beginning  of  the  great  road.  I  start  tomorrow  for  Riley, 
whence  I  will  cross  over  to  Kearney  by  land,  and  thence  come 
in  to  Omaha,  where  I  hope  to  meet  you.  I  will  send  your  letter 
this  morning  to  Pope's  office  and  endorse  your  request  that 
a  telegraph  message  be  sent  to  General  Pope  to  the  effect  that 
he  is  wanted  at  Leavenworth.  Hoping  to  meet  you  soon,  I  am, 

"Yours  truly, 

"W.  T.  SHERMAN,  M.-G." 

The  organization  for  work  on  the  plains  away  from  civili- 
zation was  as  follows :  Each  of  our  surveying  parties  consisted 
of  a  chief,  who  was  an  experienced  engineer,  two  assistants, 
also  civil  engineers,  rodmen,  flagmen  and  chainmen,  generally 
graduated  civil  engineers,  but  without  personal  experience  in 
the  field,  besides  axe  men,  teamsters  and  herders.  When  the 
party  was  expected  to  live  upon  the  game  of  the  country  a 
hunter  was  added.  Each  party  would  thus  consist  of  from 
eighteen  to  twenty-two  men,  all  armed.  When  operating  in  a 
hostile  Indian  country  they  were  regularly  drilled,  though 
after  the  Civil  War  this  was  unnecessary,  as  most  of  them  had 
been  in  the  army.  Each  party  entering  a  country  occupied  by 
hostile  Indians  was  generally  furnished  with  a  military  escort 
of  from  ten  men  to  a  company  under  a  competent  officer.  The 
duty  of  this  escort  was  to  protect  the  party  when  in  camp. 
In  the  field  the  escort  usually  occupied  prominent  hills  com- 
manding the  territory  in  which  the  work  was  to  be  done,  so  as 
to  head  off  sudden  attacks  by  the  Indians.  Nothwithstanding 
this  protection,  the  parties  were  often  attacked,  their  chief,  or 
some  of  their  men  killed  or  wounded,  and  their  stock  run  off. 

In  preliminary  surveys  in  the  open  country  a  party  would 
run  from  eight  to  twelve  miles  of  line  in  a  day.  On  location 
in  an  open  country  three  or  four  miles  would  be  covered,  but 
in  a  mountainous  country  generally  not  to  exceed  a  mile.  All 
hands  worked  from  daylight  to  dark,  the  country  being  recon- 
noitered  ahead  of  them  by  the  chief,  who  indicated  the  streams 


16  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

to  follow,  and  the  controlling  points  in  summits  and  river 
crossings.  The  party  of  location  that  followed  the  preliminary 
surveys,  had  the  maps  and  profiles  of  the  line  selected  for  loca- 
tion and  devoted  its  energies  to  obtaining  a  line  of  the  lowest 
grades  and  the  least  curvature  that  the  country  would  admit. 

The  location  party  in  our  work  on  the  Union  Pacific  was 
followed  by  the  construction  corps,  grading  generally  100 
miles  at  a  time.  That  distance  was  graded  in  about  thirty 
days  on  the  plains,  as  a  rule,  but  in  the  mountains  we  some- 
times had  to  open  our  grading  several  hundred  miles  ahead 
of  our  track  in  order  to  complete  the  grading  by  the  time  the 
track  should  reach  it.  All  the  supplies  for  this  work  had  to  be 
hauled  from  the  end  of  the  track,  and  the  wagon  transportation 
was  enormous.  At  one  time  we  were  using  at  least  10,000  ani- 
mals, and  most  of  the  time  from  8,000  to  10,000  laborers.  The 
bridge  gangs  always  worked  from  five  to  twenty  miles  ahead 
of  the  track,  and  it  was  seldom  that  the  track  waited  for  a 
bridge.  To  supply  one  mile  of  track  with  material  and  sup- 
plies required  about  forty  cars,  as  on  the  plains  everything — 
rails,  ties,  bridging,  fastenings,  all  railway  supplies,  fuel  for 
locomotives  and  trains,  and  supplies  for  men  and  animals  on 
the  entire  work,  had  to  be  transported  from  the  Missouri 
River.  Therefore,  as  we  moved  westward,  every  hundred  miles 
added  vastly  to  our  transportation.  Yet  the  work  was  so 
systematically  planned  and  executed  that  I  do  not  remember 
an  instance  in  all  the  construction  of  the  line  of  the  work 
being  delayed  a  single  week  for  want  of  material.  Each  winter 
we  planned  the  work  for  the  next  season.  By  the  opening  of 
spring,  about  April  1st,  every  part  of  the  machinery  was  in 
working  order,  and  in  no  year  did  we  fail  to  accomplish  our 
work.  After  1866  the  reports  will  show  what  we  started  out 
to  do  each  year,  and  what  we  accomplished. 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  to  me  by  Gen- 
eral W.  T.  Sherman  as  to  what  we  promised  to  do  in  1867, 
which  whs  only  about  one-half  what  we  prepared  to  do  and 
did  accomplish  in  1868,  indicates  how  one  year's  experience 
helped  us  in  the  progress  of  the  next.  It  also  shows,  what  the 
country  now  seems  in  a  great  measure  to  have  forgotten,  that 
the  Pacific  Railroad,  now  regarded  chiefly  in  the  light  of  a 


HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  17 

transcontinental,  commercial  highway,  was  then  looked  upon 
as  a  military  necessity  and  as  the  one  thing  positively  essen- 
tial to  the  binding  together  of  the  republic  East  and  West : 

"St.  Louis,  January  16,  1867. 
' -  My  Dear  Dodge  : 

"I  have  just  read  with  intense  interest  your  letter  of  the 
14th.  and,  though  you  wanted  it  kept  to  myself,  I  believe 
you  will  sanction  my  sending  it  to  General  Grant  for  his  indi- 
vidual perusal,  to  be  returned  to  me.  It  is  almost  a  miracle 
to  grasp  your  purpose  to  finish  to  Fort  Sanders  (288  miles) 
this  year,  but  you  have  done  so  much  that  I  mistrust  my  own 
judgment  and  accept  yours.  I  regard  this  road  of  yours  as 
the  solution  of  the  Indian  affairs  and  the  Mormon  question, 
and,  therefore,  give  you  all  the  aid  I  possibly  can,  but  the 
demand  for  soldiers  everywhere  and  the  slowness  of  enlist- 
ment, especially  among  the  blacks,  limit  our  ability  to  respond. 
Each  officer  exaggerates  his  own  troubles  and  appeals  for  men. 
I  now  have  General  Terry  on  the  upper  Missouri,  General 
Augur  with  you,  and  General  Hancock  just  below,  all  enter- 
prising young  men,  fit  for  counsel  or  for  the  field.  I  will  en- 
deavor to  arrange  so  that  hereafter  all  shall  act  on  common 
principles  and  with  a  common  purpose,  and  the  first  step,  of 
course,  is  to  arrange  for  the  accumulation  of  the  necessary 
men  and  materials  at  the  right  points,  for  which  your  railroad 
is  the  very  thing.  So  far  as  interest  in  your  section  is  con- 
cerned, you  may  rest  easy  that  both  Grant  and  I  feel  deeply 
concerned  in  the  safety  of  your  great  national  enterprise." 

It  was  not  until  after  November,  1867,  when  we  had  been 
at  work  two  years,  that  we  got  railroad  communication  with 
the  East  at  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  the  initial  point  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railway  by  the  completion  of  the  Northwestern  Rail- 
way. Till  then  the  Missouri  River  had  been  the  sole  route 
over  which  supplies  could  be  had.  It  was  available  only  about 
three  months  of  the  year,  and  our  construction  was  limited 
by  the  quantities  of  rail  and  equipment  that  could  be  brought 
to  us  by  boat  in  that  time.  In  twelve  months  of  work  after 
we  had  rail  communication,  we  located,  built  and  equipped 
587  miles  of  road,  working  only  from  one  end,  transporting 


18  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

everything  connected  with  it,  an  average  distance  of  800  miles 
west  of  the  Missouri  River.  This  feat  has  not  yet  been  sur- 
passed. In  accomplishing  it  we  crossed  the  divide  of  the 
continent  and  two  ranges  of  mountains,  one  of  which  was 
the  Wasatch,  where  in  the  winter  of  1868-69  we  had  to  blast 
the  earth  the  same  as  the  rocks. 

Our  Indian  troubles  commenced  in  1864  and  lasted  until 
the  tracks  joined  at  Promontory.  We  lost  most  of  our  men 
and  stock  while  building  from  Fort  Kearney  to  Bitter  Creek. 
At  that  time  every  mile  of  road  had  to  be  surveyed,  graded, 
tied  and  bridged  under  military  protection.  The  order  to 
every  surveying  corps,  grading,  bridging  and  tie  outfit  was 
never  to  run  when  attacked.  All  were  required  to  be  armed, 
and  I  do  not  know  that  the  order  was  disobeyed  in  a  single 
instance,  nor  did  I  ever  hear  that  the  Indians  had  driven  a 
party  permanently  from  its  work.  I  remember  one  occasion 
when  they  swooped  down  on  a  grading  outfit  in  sight  of  the 
temporary  fort  of  the  military  some  five  miles  away,  and 
right  in  sight  of  the  end  of  the  track.  The  Government  Com- 
mission to  examine  that  section  of  the  completed  road  had 
just  arrived,  and  the  Commissioners  witnessed  the  fight.  The 
graders  had  their  arms  stacked  on  the  cut.  The  Indians  leaped 
from  the  ravines,  and,  springing  upon  the  workmen  before 
they  could  reach  their  arms,  cut  loose  the  stock  and  caused 
a  panic.  General  Frank  P.  Blair,  General  Simpson  and  Dr. 
White  were  the  Commissioners,  and  they  showed  their  grit  by 
running  to  my  car  for  arms  to  aid  in  the  fight.  We  did  not 
fail  to  benefit  from  this  experience,  for,  on  returning  to  the 
Bast  the  Commission  dwelt  earnestly  on  the  necessity  of  our 
being  protected. 

From  the  beginning  to  the  completion  of  the  road  our 
success  depended  in  a  great  measure  on  the  cordial  and  active 
support  of  the  army,  especially  its  commander-in-chief,  Gen- 
eral Grant,  and  the  commander  of  the  Military  Division  of 
the  West,  General  Sherman.  He  took  a  personal  interest  in  the 
project.  He  visited  the  work  several  times  each  year  during 
its  continuance,  and  I  was  in  the  habit  of  communicating  with 
him  each  month,  detailing  my  progress  and  laying  before  him 
my  plans.    In  return  I  received  letters  from  him  almost  every 


HOW   WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC  19 

month.  We  also  had  the  cordial  support  of  the  district  com- 
manders of  the  country  through  which  we  operated — General 
Augur,  General  Cook,  General  Gibbon  and  General  Stevenson, 
and  their  subordinates.  General  Grant  had  given  full  and 
positive  instructions  that  every  support  should  be  given  to 
me,  and  General  Sherman  in  the  detailed  instructions  practi- 
cally left  it  to  my  own  judgment  as  to  what  support  should 
be  given  by  the  troops  on  the  plains.  They  were  also  instructed 
to  furnish  my  surveying  parties  with  provisions  from  the  posts 
whenever  our  provisions  should  give  out,  and  the  subordinate 
officers,  following  the  example  of  their  chiefs,  responded  to 
every  demand  made,  no  matter  at  what  time  of  day  or  night, 
what  time  of  year  or  in  what  weather,  and  took  as  much  inter- 
est in  the  matter  as  we  did.  \ 

General  Sherman's  great  interest  in  the  enterprise  orig- 
inated from  the  fact  that  he  personally,  in  1849,  took  from 
General  Smith,  Commander  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  the  instruc- 
tions to  Lieutenants  Warner  and  Williamson,  of  the  engineers, 
who  made  the  first  surveys  coming  east  from  California,  to 
ascertain,  if  possible,  whether  it  was  practicable  to  cross  the 
Sierra  Nevada  range  of  mountains  with  a  railroad.  These  in- 
structions were  sent  at  General  Sherman's  own  suggestion, 
and  the  orders  and  examination  preceded  the  Act  of  Congress 
making  appropriations  for  explorations  and  surveys  for  a 
railroad  route  from  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean 
by  four  years.  General  Sherman's  interest  lasted  during  his 
lifetime,  and  was  signalized  in  the  closing  days  of  his  official 
life  by  a  summary  of  transcontinental  railroad  construction, 
the  most  exhaustive  paper  on  the  subject  I  have  ever  seen. 

When  I  took  charge  as  Chief  Engineer  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railway  in  1866,  I  knew  that  my  first  duty  would  be  to  deter- 
mine the  crossing  of  the  line  over  the  Black  Hills,  a  bold,  high 
spur  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  I  concentrated  my  engineer- 
ing forces  for  that  purpose.  It  had  already  been  ascertained 
that  we  could  get  down  to  the  Laramie  plains  from  the  sum- 
mit going  west,  but  the  route  had  not  been  determined  going 
east.  In  my  examinations  made  while  coming  home  from  the 
Powder  River  Expedition  in  1865  I  had  found  what  I  believed 
to  be  the  most  practicable  route  from  the  summit  to  the  foot 


20  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

of  the  mountains  on  the  east,  and  directed  that  it  be  examined. 
This  was  immediately  done,  and  the  route  was  found  practi- 
cable. 

After  the  battle  of  Atlanta,  my  assignment  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Missouri  brought  the  country  between  the  Mis- 
souri Kiver  and  California  under  my  command,  and  then  I 
was  charged  with  the  Indian  campaigns  of  1865  and  1866. 
I  traveled  again  over  all  that  portion  of  the  country  I  had 
explored  in  former  years,  and  saw  the  beginning  of  that  great 
future  that  awaited  it.  I  then  began  to  comprehend  its  capa- 
bilities and  resources ;  and  in  all  movements  of  our  troops  and 
scouting  parties  I  had  reports  made  upon  the  country — its 
resources  and  topography;  and  I,  myself,  during  the  two 
years  traversed  it  east  and  west,  north  and  south,  from  the 
Arkansas  to  the  Yellowstone,  and  from  the  Missouri  to  the 
Salt  Lake  basin. 

It  was  on  one  of  these  trips  that  I  discovered  the  pass 
through  the  Black  Hills  and  gave  it  the  name  of  Sherman,  in 
honor  of  my  great  chief.  Its  elevation  is  8,236  feet,  and  for 
years  it  was  the  highest  point  reached  by  any  railroad  in  the 
United  States.  The  circumstances  of  this  accidental  discovery 
may  not  be  uninteresting. 

While  returning  from  the  Powder  River  campaign,  I  was 
in  the  habit  of  leaving  my  troops  and  trains,  and  with  a  few 
men,  examining  all  the  approaches  and  passes  from  Fort  Lar- 
amie south  over  the  secondary  range  of  mountains  known  as 
the  Black  Hills,  the  most  difficult  to  overcome  with  proper 
grades  of  all  the  ranges,  on  account  of  its  short  slopes  and 
great  height.  "When  I  reached  the  Lodge  Pole  Creek,  up  which 
went  the  overland  trail,  I  took  a  few  mounted  men — I  think 
six — and  with  one  of  my  scouts  as  guide,  went  up  the  creek 
to  the  summit  of  Cheyenne  Pass,  striking  south  along  the 
crest  of  the  mountains  to  obtain  a  good  view  of  the  country, 
the  troops  and  trains  at  the  same  time  passing  along  the  east 
base  of  the  mountains  on  what  was  known  as  the  St.  Vrain 
and  the  Laramie  trail. 

About  noon,  in  the  valley  of  a  tributary  of  Crow  Creek, 
we  discovered  Indians,  who,  at  the  same  time,  discovered  us. 
They  were  between  us  and  our  trains.    I  saw  our  danger  and 


HOW   WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC  21 

took  means  immediately  to  reach  the  ridge  and  try  to  head 
them  off,  and  follow  it  to  where  the  cavalry  could  see  our 
signals.  We  dismounted  and  started  down  the  ridge,  holding 
the  Indians  at  bay,  when  they  came  too  near,  with  our  Win- 
chesters. It  was  nearly  night  when  the  troops  saw  our  smoke 
signals  of  danger  and  came  to  our  relief;  and  in  going  to 
the  train  we  followed  this  ridge  out  until  I  discovered  it  led 
down  to  the  plains  without  a  break.  I  then  said  to  my  guide 
that  if  we  saved  our  scalps  I  believed  we  had  found  the  cross- 
ing of  the  Black  Hills — and  over  this  ridge,  between  hqne 
Tree  and  Crow  Creeks,  the  wonderful  line  over  the  mountains 
was  built.  For  over  two  years  all  explorations  had  failed  to 
find  a  satisfactory  crossing  of  this  range.  The  country  east 
of  it  was  unexplored,  but  we  had  no  doubt  we  could  reach  it. 
The  year  1866  was  spent  in  determining  the  crossing  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains  or  the  Black  Hills  and  the  approaches 
to  them  from  the  east.  It  was  the  great  desire  of  the  company 
to  build  the  line  through  Denver,  Colorado,  if  possible,  up  the 
South  Platte  Valley  and  crossing  the  mountains  west  of  Den- 
ver and  reaching  Salt  Lake  by  the  Yampa,  White  and  Uinta 
Valleys,  and  I  covered  the  country  from  the  Laramie  Canon 
on  the  north  to  the  Arkansas  on  the  south,  examining  all  the 
mountain  passes  and  approaches  and  examined  all  these  lines 
personally.  These  surveys  demonstrated  that  there  was  no 
question  as  to  where  the  line  should  cross  these  mountains. 
The  general  examination  of  the  plains  along  the  east  foot  of  the 
mountains  showed  that  the  plains  rose  from  the  Arkansas 
north  until  they  reached  their  apex  at  the  valley  of  Crow 
Creek,  near  where  Cheyenne  now  stands.  Then  they  fell  to 
the  north  towards  the  Laramie,  and  when  we  came  to  examine 
the  summits  of  these  mountains,  we  found  their  lowest  alti- 
tude was  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Cheyenne  Pass,  so  that  there 
was  no  question  as  to  where  our  line  should  run.  The  line  up 
the  Platte  and  up  the  Lodge  Pole  and  by  the  Lone  Tree  Pass 
which  I  had  discovered,  was  far  superior  to  any  other  line,  and 
it  forced  us  to  abandon  the  line  in  the  direction  of  Denver  and 
we  had  in  view  the  building  of  a  branch  from  Crow  Creek 
to  Denver;  about  112  miles  long.  I  reported  the  result  of  my 
examination  on  November  15,  1866,  to  the  company,  and  on 


22  HOW   WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

November  23,  1866,  the  company  adopted  the  lines  which 
I  had  recommended,  and  I  immediately  proceeded  to  develop 
them  for  building  the  next  year.  We  also  examined  this  year 
the  line  by  the  way  of  the  North  Platte,  Fort  Laramie,  Sweet 
Water  Creek  and  the  South  Pass,  reaching  Salt  Lake  by  the 
way  of  the  Big  Sandy  and  Black  Fork.  This  line  avoided  the 
crossing  of  the  Black  Hills  and  the  heavy  grade  ascending 
from  the  east  to 'the  summit  and  the  ninety-foot  grade  dropping 
down  into  the  Laramie  plains,  but  this  line  was  some  forty 
miles  longer  than  the  direct  line  by  the  Lodge  Pole,  and  oil 
this  line  there  was  no  development  of  coal  as  there  was  on  the 
line  adopted  by  the  company,  and  on  presenting  this  question 
to  the  Government,  they  decided  against  the  North  Platte 
and  South  Pass  line.  The  chiefs  of  parties  for  this  work  were : 
James  A.  Evans,  who  was  an  engineer  of  great  ability,  Mr. 
P.  T.  Brown,  who  was  an  assistant  engineer,  a  young  man 
who  started  out  in  1864  as  a  rodman.  He  made  the  surveys 
through  Clear  Creek  to  the  Middle  Park,  over  the  Burthud 
Pass;  also  the  Boulder  Pass.  On  this  pass  in  November,  the 
party  was  caught  in  the  severest  snow  storm  known  in  the 
mountains,  and  he  was  obliged  to  abandon  his  pack  train  and 
save  his  party  by  working  his  way  eastward  through  the  storm 
to  Boulder  Creek.  His  stock  drifted  to  Middle  Park.  There 
they  wintered  near  the  hot  springs.  I  received  knowledge 
through  one  of  my  old  mountain  friends  that  they  were  there 
in  good  condition,  and  we  recovered  them  in  the  spring.  Mr. 
L.  L.  Hills,  assistant  engineer,  had  charge  of  the  surveys  on  the 
Lodge  Pole  line  and  up  the  Cashe  La  Poudre  River  to  Laramie 
Plains,  and  Mr.  J.  E.  House  had  charge  of  the  surveys,  sound- 
ings and  examination  of  the  Missouri  River.  Mr.  F.  A.  Case, 
division  engineer,  was  completing  the  examination  of  the  passes 
through  the  main  range,  made  the  year  before,  and  Mr.  F.  H. 
Ainsworth  was  running  the  lines  in  the  Platte  Valley,  while 
Mr.  Thomas  H.  Bates  had  charge  of  the  surveys  in  Utah  and 
west  to  the  California  state  line.  The  explorations  and  surveys 
of  1866  had  only  confirmed  the  reconnoissance  made  in  the 
fifties  by  Mr.  Dey  and  myself  of  the  general  route  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad,  so  that  for  the  years  to  come  our  work 
would  be  almost  entirely  devoted  to  the  final  locations. 


HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  23 

In  the  spring  of  1867,  I  received  a  letter  from  General 
Grant  suggesting  that  in  my  explorations  during  the  year 
1867,  I  take  with  me  his  chief-of-staff,  General  John  A.  Rawlins, 
for  the  benefit  of  his  health.  General  Rawlins  had  shown  a 
tendency  towards  consumption  and  it  was  thought  that  three 
or  four  months  in  camp  on  the  plains  would  be  of  great  benefit 
to  him,  I.  therefore,  with  great  pleasure  invited  General  Raw- 
lins to  accompany  me  with  such  friends  as  he  might  select.  He 
came  to  me  at  Omaha,  bringing  with  him  Major  J.  W.  McK. 
Dunn,  A.  D.  C.  and  John  E.  Corwith  of  Galena,  Illinois,  and 
added  to  this  party  on  my  invitation  was  John  R.  Duff,  son  of  a 
director  of  the  road,  and  Mr.  David  Van  Lennep,  my  geologist. 
We  had  as  an  escort  two  companies  of  cavalry  and  two  of 
infantry  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  K.  Miz- 
ner,  who  had  with  him  Lieutenant  J.  W.  Wheelan  and  Dr. 
Henry  B.  Terry,  Assistant  Surgeon,  U.  S.  A.  They  accompa- 
nied me  during  the  entire  summer.  We  started  out  the  first  of 
June  and  went  to  the  end  of  the  track,  which  was  then  at  North 
Platte,  and  from  there  we  marched  immediately  up  the  Platte, 
then  up  the  Lodge  Pole  to  the  east  base  of  the  Black  Hills, 
where  we  were  joined  by  General  C.  C.  Augur,  who  was  then  in 
command  of  that  department  with  his  staff.  General  Augur's 
instructions  were  to  locate  the  military  post  where  I  located  the 
end  of  the  division  at  the  east  base  of  the  mountains,  and  after 
a  thorough  examination  of  the  country,  I  located  the  division 
point  on  Crow  Creek,  where  Cheyenne  now  stands,  and  named 
it  Cheyenne,  and  General  Augur  immediately  located  just  north 
of  the  town  the  military  post  of  D.  A.  Russell.  We  spent  the 
Fourth  of  July  at  this  place,  and  General  John  A.  Rawlins 
delivered  a  very  remarkable  and  patriotic  speech. 

At  this  time  the  heaviest  settlement  was  Denver,  some 
112  miles  away.  While  we  were  camped  here,  the  Indians 
swooped  down  out  of  the  ravine  of  Crow  Creek  and  attacked 
a  Mormon  grading  train  and  outfit,  that  was  coming  from  Salt 
Lake  to  take  work  on  the  road,  and  killed  two  of  its  men.  Our 
cavalry  hastily  mounted  and  drove  off  the  Indians  and  saved 
their  stock.  We  buried  the  men  and  started  the  graveyard  of 
the  future  city,  now  the  capital  of  the  State  of  Wyoming. 


24  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

In  the  spring  of  1867  there  was  a  party  in  the  field  under 
u.  L.  Hills,  running  a  line  east  from  the  base  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  The  first  word  I  received  from  it  was  through  the 
commanding  officer  at  Camp  Collins,  who  had  served  under 
me  while  I  commanded  the  department.  He  informed  me  that 
a  young  man,  named  J.  M.  Eddy,  had  brought  the  party  into 
that  post,  its  chief  having  been  killed  in  a  fight  with  the 
Indians.  I  inquired  who  Eddy  was  and  was  informed  that 
he  was  an  axeman  in  the  party,  and  had  served  under  me  in 
the  Civil  War.  I  ordered  him  to  meet  me  with  his  party  on 
the  Lodge  Pole  as  I  traveled  west.  He  turned  out  to  be  a 
young  boy  who  had  entered  the  Thirteenth  Illinois  when  only 
16  or  17.  The  fight  in  which  Mr.  Hills,  the  chief,  was  killed, 
occurred  some  six  miles  east  of  Cheyenne,  and  after  the 
leader  was  lost  young  Eddy  rallied  the  party,  and  by  the 
force  of  his  own  character,  took  it  into  Camp  Collins.  Of 
course,  I  immediately  promoted  him.  He  was  with  me  during 
the  entire  construction  of  the  Union  Pacific,  rising  from  one 
position  to  another,  until  he  became  the  General  Manager  of 
portions  of  the  great  Southwestern  System.  He  died  in  the 
railway  service. 

After  meeting  this  party,  I  completed  the  location  of  the 
line  to  Crow  Creek,  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  now  known 
as   Cheyenne. 

We  marched  west  across  the  Black  Hills  and  Laramie 
Plains  and  passed  through  Rattle  Snake  Hills  Pass,  following 
down  a  stream  that  emptied  into  the  Platte  just  opposite  Fort 
Steele  and  at  a  point  where  the  Union  Pacific  now  crosses  the 
North  Platte  River.  We  crossed  this  stream  by  swimming 
our  horses  and  proceeded  west.  The  country  from  the  Platte 
west  to  the  Bitter  Creek  is  very  dry,  no  running  water  in  it, 
and  before  we  reached  camp,  General  Rawlins  became  very 
thirsty,  and  we  started  out  in  an  endeavor  to  find  running 
water,  and  I  discovered  a  spring  in  a  draw  near  where  the  town 
of  Rawlins  now  stands.  When  General  Rawlins  reached  this 
spring  he  said  it  was  the  most  gracious  and  acceptable  of  any- 
thing he  had  had  on  the  march,  and  also  said  that  if  anything 
was  ever  named  for  him,  he  wanted  it  to  be  a  spring  of  water, 
and  I  said  then,  "We  will  name  this  Rawlins  Springs."    It 


HOW   WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC  2  5 

took  that  name.  The  end  of  one  of  our  divisions  happened  to 
be  close  to  this  spring,  and  I  named  the  station  Rawlins,  which 
has  grown  now  into  quite  a  town  and  a  division  point  of  the 
Union  Pacific  road. 

As  soon  as  I  had  determined  the  line  over  the  Black  Hills, 
I  learned  that  one  of  the  parties  which  was  trying  to  work 
west  from  the  North  Platte  had  found  the  maps  of  the  country 
misleading.  Endeavoring  to  find  the  summit  of  the  continental 
divide,  this  party  had  dropped  into  a  great  basin.  Percy  T. 
Brown,  the  chief  of  the  party,  finding  himself  in  an  unknown 
country  entirely  different  in  character  from  what  had  been 
expected,  took  eight  of  his  escort  and  started  to  explore  the 
region.  When  near  the  center  of  what  is  now  known  as  the 
Red  Desert,  he  was  attacked  by  300  Sioux  Indians,  working 
south  to  the  Bridger  Pass  stage  road  coming  from  the  Sweet- 
water. Brown  took  measures  to  defend  himself,  occupying, 
after  a  severe  contest  with  the  Indians  for  its  possession,  a 
small  hill,  and  fighting  from  12  o'clock  noon  until  toward 
night,  when  he  was  shot  through  the  abdomen.  He  then  or- 
dered the  soldiers  to  leave  him  and  save  themselves,  but  they 
refused  and  allowed  the  Indians  to  get  hold  of  the  stock,  after 
which  the  redskins  withdrew.  The  soldiers  then  made  a  litter 
of  their  carbines  and  packed  Brown  upon  it  fifteen  miles 
through  the  sage  brush  to  Laclede  station,  near  Bridger 's 
Pass.  Their  laborious  efforts  to  save  him  were  made  in  vain, 
however,  for  Brown  died  at  the  station. 

Upon  an  examination  of  this  country,  we  discovered  that 
the  divide  of  the  continent  had  let  down  from  the  Wind  River 
Mountains  on  the  north  to  Medicine  Bow,  the  beginning  of 
the  main  Rocky  Mountains  on  the  south  from  an  elevation  of 
13,000  feet  to  one  of  7,000  into  an  open  plain,  and  that  the 
divide  was  in  reality  a  great  basin  about  eighty  miles  across  in 
its  widest  part  east  and  west,  and  100  to  150  miles  northwest 
and  southeast  in  its  longest  part.  The  streams  running  into  it 
sink,  leaving  a  red  soil  over  the  entire  basin,  from  which  it 
receives  the  name  of  the  Red  Desert.  The  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
way crossed  the  Red  Desert  near  its  southern  limit,  between 
the  stations  of  Creston  and  Tipton,  a  distance  of  about  thirty- 
four  miles. 


HOW   WE    BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC 


In  the  basin  we  found  and  rescued  the  paHy  headed  by 
Thomas  F.  Bates,  which  was  coming  from  Green  River  east. 
When  I  reached  what  is  now  Creston  I  discovered  Bates  and 
his  party.  They  had  been  in  the  widest  part  of  the  basin  for 
nearly  a  week  without  water,  and  were  almost  exhausted. 
When  we  discovered  them  they  had  abandoned  the  line  and 
were  taking  a  course  due  east  by  the  compass  running  for 
water.  At  first  we  thought  them  Indians,  but  on  looking 
through  my  glasses  I  saw  that  they  had  teams  with  them. 
AVe  went  to  their  relief  at  once  and  saved  them.  They  were 
in  a  deplorable  condition  from  thirst. 

On  the  western  rim  of  the  basin,  as  I  left  it,  I  ran  into  the 
remains  of  some  old  wagons  and  other  articles  which  indicated 
that  some  military  force  had  tried  to  cross  there.  Afterwards 
I  learned  that  it  had  been  Colonel  Steptoe's  expedition  to 
Oregon,  and  that  in  crossing  from  Bridger's  Pass  trying  to 
reach  northwest,  they  struck  this  country  and  were  obliged 
to  abandon  a  portion  of  their  outfit.  This  demonstrated  that 
no  knowledge  of  this  depression  was  had  by  anyone  until  we 
developed  it  in  our  surveys.  AVe  had  great  difficulty  in  obtain- 
ing water  for  the  operation  of  our  road  through  the  basin, 
being  obliged  to  sink  artesian  wells  to  a  great  depth.  After 
reaching  the  west  rim  of  the  Red  Desert  you  immediately  drop 
into  the  valley  of  Bitter  Creek,  the  waters  of  which  flow  into 
the  Pacific.  The  crossing  of  the  continental  divide  by  the 
Union  Pacific  is  thus  by  way  of  an  open  prairie  of  compar- 
atively low  elevation,  about  7,000  feet,  instead  of  a  mountain 
range.  The  work  of  building  the  road  there  was  unexpectedly 
light,  and  it  almost  seems  that  nature  made  this  great  open- 
ing in  the  Rocky  Mountains  expressly  for  the  passage  of  a 
transcontinental   railway. 

The  law  of  1862  provided  that  the  Union  Pacific  and 
Central  Pacific  should  join  their  tracks  at  the  California  State 
line.  The  law  of  1864  allowed  the  Central  Pacific  to  build 
150  miles  east  of  the  state  line,  but  that  was  changed  by  the 
law  of  1866,  and  the  two  companies  allowed  to  build,  one  east 
and  the  other  west,  until  they  met.  The  building  of  500  miles 
of  road  during  the  summers  of  1866  and  1867,  hardly  twelve 
months '  actual  work,  had  aroused  great  interest  in  the  country, 


HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  27 

and  much  excitement,  in  which  the  Government  took  a  part. 
We  were  pressed  to  as  speedy  a  completion  of  the  road  as 
possible,  although  ten  years  had  been  allowed  by  Congress. 
The  officers  of  the  Union  Pacific  had  become  imbued  with 
this  spirit,  and  they  urged  me  to  plan  to  build  as  much  road 
as  possible  in  1868.  I  have  already  alluded  to  the  completion 
of  the  Northwestern  Railway  in  December,  1867,  to  Council 
Bluffs,  Iowa,  which  gave  us  an  all  rail  connection  with  the 
East,  so  that  we  could  obtain  our  rail  material  and  equipment 
during  the  entire  year.  The  reaching  of  the  summit  of  the 
first  range  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  which  I  named  Sherman, 
in  honor  of  my  old  commander,  in  1867,  placed  us  compara- 
tively near  good  timber  for  ties  and  bridges,  which,  after 
cutting,  could  be  floated  down  the  mountain  streams  at  some 
points  to  our  crossing,  and  at  others  to  within  twenty-five  or 
thirty  miles  of  our  work.  This  afforded  great  relief  to  the 
transportation. 

In  the  fall  of  1867,  when  we  closed  our  work  and  ended 
our  track  at  the  summit  of  the  Black  Hills,  the  company  was 
apparently  at  their  end,  so  far  as  finances  were  concerned  and 
were  greatly  disturbed  as  to  the  future.  When  I  had  received 
all  of  my  parties'  reports,  extending  to  the  California  State 
line,  and  had  completed  the  profiles,  maps  and  estimates,  I 
went  on  to  New  York  and  met  the  Board  of  Directors,  and 
when  they  saw  the  very  favorable  line  that  we  had  obtained 
over  the  Black  Hills,  across  the  Laramie  Plains  and  over  the 
divide  of  the  continent,  where  they  had  expected  to  meet  very 
heavy  work,  and  also  the  line  over  the  Wasatch  Range  to 
Salt  Lake  and  from  there  on  west,  they  were  very  much 
encouraged.  The  estimates  on  this  line  were  not  more  than 
one-half  of  what  they  had  expected  and  then  a  few  miles 
west  of  Cheyenne,  they  would  commence  receiving  $48,000  in 
Government  bonds  per  mile  for  150  miles  and  from  there  on, 
$32,000  in  Government  bonds  per  mile,  which  was  a  great 
advance  on  the  amount  that  they  had  received  on  the  630 
miles  from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  east  base  of  the  moun- 
tains, which  was  only  $16,000  in  Government  bonds  per  mile, 
while  the  cost  of  the  work  had  been  very  heavy  on  account 
of  the  long  distance  rails,  timber,  supplies  and  everything  had 


2  8  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

to-  be  hauled  and  the  extra  cost  from  the  fact  that  the  country 
furnished  nothing  for  the  road.  The  company  immediately 
made  extraordinary  effort  to  provide  the  money  to  build  to 
Salt  Lake,  and  during  fhe  winter  I  received  instructions  to 
make  every  effort  to  build  as  much  line  as  possible  the  coming 
year,  and  the  company  forwarded  to  us  at  our  base  on  the 
Missouri  River  an  immense  amount  of  rails,  fastenings,  etc., 
as  we  then  had  rail  connections  by  the  Northwestern  road  all 
the  way  to  Council  Bluffs. 

We  made  our  plans  to  build  to  Salt  Lake,  480  miles,  in 
1868,  and  to  endeavor  to  meet  the  Central  Pacific  at  Hum- 
boldt Wells,  219  miles  west  of  Ogden,  in  the  spring  of  1869. 
I  had  extended  our  surveys  during  the  years  1867  and  1868 
to  the  California  State  line,  and  laid  my  plans  before  the 
company,  and  the_  necessary  preparations  were  made  to  com- 
mence work  as  soon  as  frost  Avas  out  of  the  ground,  say  about 
April  1st.  Material  had  been  collected  in  sufficient  quantities 
at  the  end  of  the  track  to  prevent  any  delay.  During  the  win- 
ter ties  and  bridge  timber  had  been  cut  and  prepared  in  the 
mountains  to  bring  to  the  line  at  convenient  points,  and  the 
engineering  forces  were  started  to  their  positions  before  cold 
weather  was  over  that  they  might  be  ready  to  begin  their 
work  as  soon  as  the  temperature  would  permit.  I  remember 
that  the  parties  going  to  Salt  Lake  crossed  the  Wasatch  Moun- 
tains on  sledges,  and  that  the  snow  covered  the  tops  of  the 
telegraph  poles.  We  all  knew  and  appreciated  that  the  task 
we  had  laid  out' would  require  the  greatest  energy  on  the  part 
of  all  hands.  About  April  1st,  therefore,  I  went  onto  the 
plains  myself  and  started  our  construction  forces,  remaining 
the  whole  summer  between  Laramie  and  the  Humboldt  Moun- 
tains. I  was  surprised  at  the  rapidity  with  which  the  work 
was  carried  forward.  Winter  caught  us  in  the  Wasatch  Moun- 
tains, but  we  kept  on  grading  our  road  and  laying  our  track 
in  the  snow  and  ice  at  a  tremendous  cost.  I  estimated  for  the 
company  that  the  extra  cost  of  thus  forcing  the  work  during 
that  summer  and  winter  was  over  $10,000,000,  but  the  instruc- 
tions I  received  were  to  go  on,  no  matter  what  the  cost.  Spring 
found  us  with  the  track  at  Ogden,  and  by  May  1st  we  had 
reached   Promontory,    534   miles   west    of   our   starting   point 


HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  2  9 

twelve  months  before.  Work  on  our  line  was  opened  to  Hum- 
boldt Wells,  making  in  the  year  a  grading  of  754  miles  of  line. 

The  Central  Pacific  had  made  wonderful  progress  coming 
east,  and  we  abandoned  the  work  from  Promontory  to  Hum- 
boldt Wells,  bending  all  our  efforts  to  meet  them  at  Promon- 
tory. Between  Ogden  and  Promontory  each  company  graded 
a  line,  running  side  by  side,  and  in  some  places  one  line  was 
right  above  the  other.  The  laborers  upon  the  Central  Pacific 
were  Chinamen,  while  ours  were  Irishmen,  and  there  was  much 
ill-feeling  between  them.  Our  Irishmen  were  in  the  habit  of 
firing  their  blasts  in  the  cuts  without  giving  warning  to  the 
Chinamen  on  the  Central  Pacific  working  right  above  them. 
From  this  cause  several  Chinamen  were  severely  hurt.  Com- 
plaint was  made  to  me  by  the  Central  Pacific  people,  and  I 
endeavored  to  have  the  contractors  bring  all  hostilities  to  a 
close,  but,  for  some  reason  or  other,  they  failed  to  do  so.  One 
day  the  Chinamen,  appreciating  the  situation,  put  in  what  is 
called  a  "grave"  on  their  work,  and  when  the  Irishmen  right 
under  them  were  all  at  work  let  go  their  blast  and  buried 
several  of  our  men.  This  brought  about  a  truce  at  once.  Prom 
that  time  the  Irish  laborers  showed  due  respect  for  the  China- 
men, and  there  was  no  further  trouble. 

When  the  two  roads  approached  in  May,  1869,  we  agreed 
to  connect  at  the  summit  of  Promontory  Point,  and  the  day 
was  fixed  so  that  trains  could  reach  us  from  New  York  and 
California.  We  laid  the  rails  to  the  junction  point  a  day  or 
two  before  the  final  closing.  Coming  from  the  East,  represent- 
ing the  Union  Pacific,  were  Thomas  C.  Durant,  Vice  President, 
Sidney  Dillon,  who  had  taken  a  prominent  part  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  road  from  the  beginning,  and  John  R.  Duff, 
directors,  together  with  the  consulting  engineer  and  a  carload 
of  friends.  From  the  West  the  representatives  of  the  Central 
Pacific  were  its  President,  Leland  Stanford,  Mr.  Collis  P. 
Huntington,  Mr.  Crocker,  Mr.  Hopkins,  Mr.  Colton,  and  other 
members  of  that  company,  and  Mr.  Montague,  chief  engineer, 
and  a  detachment  of  troops  from  Camp  Douglass,  Salt  Lake 
City.  The  two  trains  pulled  up  facing  each  other,  each  crowded 
with  workmen  who  sought  advantageous  positions  to  witness 
the   ceremonies,   and  literallv   covered   the   cars.    The   officers 


30  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

and  invited  guests  formed  on  each  side  of  the  track  leaving  it 
open  to  the  south.  The  telegraph  lines  had  been  brought  to 
that  point,  so  that  in  the  final  spiking  as  each  blow  was  struck 
the  telegraph  recorded  it  at  each  connected  office  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  Prayer  was  offered,  a  number  of 
spikes  were  driven  in  the  two  adjoining  rails,  each  one  of  the 
prominent  persons  present  taking  a  hand,  but  very  few  hit- 
ting the  spikes,  to  the  great  amusement  of  the  crowd.  When 
the  last  spike  was  placed,  light  taps  were  given  upon  it  by 
several  officials,  and  it  was  finally  driven  home  by  the  chief 
engineer  of  the  Union  Pacific  railway.  The  engineers  ran 
up  their  locomotives  until  they  touched,  the  engineer  upon  each 
engine  breaking  a  bottle  of  champagne  upon  the  other  one, 
and  thus  the  two  roads  were  wedded  into  one  great  trunk 
line  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  Spikes  of  silver  and  gold 
were  brought  specially  for  the  occasion,  and  later  were  manu- 
factured into  miniature  spikes  as  mementoes  of  the  occasion. 
It  was  a  bright  but  cold  day.  After  a  few  speeches  we  all 
took  refuge  in  the  Central  Pacific  cars,  where  wine  flowed 
freely,  and  many  speeches  were  made. 

Telegrams  were  sent  to  President  Grant,  Vice  President 
Colfax,  and  other  officials  throughout  the  country.  I  did  not 
fail  to  send  a  message  to  my  old  commander,  who  had  beem 
such  a  helpful  factor  in  the  building  of  the  road,  and  I  received 
this  message  in  response  : 

"Washington,  May  11,  1869. 
"General  G.  M.  Dodge: 

"In  common  with  millions,  I  sat  yesterday  and  heard  the 
mystic  taps  of  the  telegraph  battery  announce  the  nailing  of 
the  last  spike  in  the  great  Pacific  road.  Indeed,  am  I  its  friend? 
Yea.  Yet,  am  I  to  be  a  part  of  it,  for  as  early  as  1854  I  was 
vice  president  of  the  effort  begun  in  San  Francisco  under  the 
contract  of  Robinson,  Seymour  &  Co.  As  soon  as  General 
Thomas  makes  certain  preliminary  inspections  in  his  new 
command  on  the  Pacific,  I  will  go  out,  and,  I  need  not  say,  will 
have  different  facilities  from  that  of  1846,  when  the  only  way 
to  California  was  by  sail  around  Cape  Horn,  taking  our  ships 
196  days.  All  honor  to  you,  to  Durant,  to  Jack  and  Dan  Case- 
ment, to  Reed,  and  the  thousands  of  brave  fellows  who  have 


HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC  31 

wrought  out  this  glorious  problem,  spite  of  changes,  storms, 
and  even  doubts  of  the  incredulous,  and  all  the  obstacles  you 
have  now  happily  surmounted. 

"W.  T.  SHERMAN,  General." 

That  night  the  visitors  started  east  and  west,  leaving  the 
engineers  and  working  parties  to  arrange  the  details  for  con- 
ducting the  business  of  each  road  at  this  terminal.  It  was  only 
a  day  or  two  before  trains  bound  for  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
were  passing  regularly. 

During  the  building  of  the  road  from  Sherman  west,  many 
questions  arose  in  relation  to  the  location,  construction,  the 
grades  and  curvatures  of  the  work.  All  through  I  stood  firmly 
for  my  line,  for  what  I  considered  was  a  commercially  econom- 
ical line  for  the  company,  and  for  what  I  thought  we  ought 
to  build  under  the  specifications  of  the  Government.  News  of 
the  contest  between  the  company  and  the  contractors  reached 
Washington  through  the  Government  Commissioners.  Generals 
Grant  and  Sherman  were  much  interested,  and  in  1868  they 
came  West  with  a  party  consisting  of  Major-General  Phillip 
H.  Sheridan,  General  August  Kautz,  General  Joseph  C.  Potter, 
General  Frederick  Dent,  General  William  S.  Harney,  General 
Louis  C.  Hunt.  General  Adam  Slemmer,  Sidney  Dillon  and  T.  C. 
Durant,  who  wired  me  to  meet  them  at  Fort  Sanders,  then  the 
headquarters  of  General  Gibbon.  The  questions  in  dispute  be- 
tween myself  and  the  contractors  were  then  taken  up,  and 
Generals  Grant  and  Sherman  took  decided  grounds  in  the  mat- 
ter, supporting  me  fully,  so  that  I  had  no  further  trouble.  A 
view  of  this  gathering  of  officers  was  caught  by  a  local  photog- 
rapher, who  happened  to  be  at  the  post  and  is  reproduced  here. 
Probably  no  more  noted  military  gathering  has  occurred  since 
the  Civil  War. 

Two  changes  were  made  by  the  contractors  in  the  line  so 
as  to  cheapen  the  work,  and  this  was  at  the  expense  of  the 
commercial  value  of  the  property.  This  was  always  opposed  by 
the  division  engineer  who  located  the  line,  and  he  was  sup- 
ported by  the  chief  engineer.  The  changes  were  always  made 
when  the  chief  engineer  was  absent.  The  company  would  agree 
to  a  change,  and  the  work  on  the  changes  would  be  so  far 


32  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

advanced  that  it  was  too  late  to  rectify  the  matter  when  the 
chief  engineer  returned.  The  first  change  was  of  Mr.  James 
A.  Evans'  location  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Black  Hills 
from  Cheyenne  to  Sherman.  Evans  had  a  ninety-foot  equated 
grade  with  a  six  degree  maximum  curvature.  It  was  a  very 
fine  location,  and  the  amount  of  curvature  was  remarkably 
small  for  a  mountain  line.  It  rose  ninety  feet  to  the  mile  in 
a  steady  climb.  Colonel  Silas  Seymour,  the  consulting  engineer, 
undertook  to  reduce  this  grade  to  eighty  feet,  but  increased 
the  curvature  so  much  that  an  engine  would  haul  more  cars 
over  Evans'  ninety-foot  grade  than  on  Seymour's  eighty-foot 
grade,  but  Seymour  was  obliged,  when  he  reached  the  foot  of 
the  mountains,  to  put  in  a  ninety-foot  grade  to  save  work  as 
he  dropped  off  the  foot  hills  to  the  plains,  and  a  portion  of 
this  grade  remains  today.  When  Evans  took  up  the  change  in 
his  report  and  compared  it  with  his  line,  he  made  it  so  plain 
that  the  change  was  wrong  that  the  Government  directors 
adopted  it  for  their  report. 

The  next  change  was  from  Laramie  River  to  Rattlesnake 
Hills,  or  Carbon  Summit.  The  original  line  ran  north  of  Cooper 
Lake,  and  O'Neil,  who  had  instructions  to  locate  on  that  line, 
changed  it,  by  order  of  Colonel  Silas  Seymour,  consulting  en- 
gineer, to  a  line  dropping  into  the  valleys  of  Rock  Creek  and 
Medicine  Bow  River,  to  save  work.  This  increased  the  length 
of  the  line  twenty  miles,  and  caused  the  report  that  we  were 
making  the  road  crooked  to  gain  mileage  and  secure  $48,000 
per  mile  of  the  bonded  subsidy.  The  amount  of  grading  on 
this  line  was  about  one-half  of  that  on  the  original  line.  Dur- 
ing 1903  and  1904,  in  bringing  the  Union  Pacific  line  down  to 
a  maximum  grade  of  forty-seven  feet  to  the  mile,  except  over 
the  Wasatch  Range  and  Black  Hills,  the  company  abandoned 
this  principal  change  made  by  the  consulting  engineer,  and 
built  on  or  near  my  original  location,  saving  about  twenty 
miles  in  distance.  It  was  this  change  that  brought  Generals 
Grant  and  Sherman  to  see  me,  and  insist  on  my  remaining  as 
chief  engineer.  At  the  time  this  change  was  made  the  chief 
engineer  was  in  Salt  Lake,  and  did  not  know  of  it  until  it  was 
practically  graded.    He  entered  his  protest  and  notified  the 


HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  33 

company  that  he  would  not  submit  to  such  changes  without 
being  consulted. 

I  remember  that  the  progress  of  the  work  was  then  such 
that  Generals  Grant  and  Sherman  were  very  enthusiastic  over 
the  belief  that  we  would  soon  reach  the  summit  of  the  Wasatch 
Mountains,  but  I  could  not  convince  them  that  a  junction 
of  the  two  roads  was  in  sight  within  a  year.  When  you  con- 
sider that  not  a  mile  of  this  division  of  the  road  had  been 
located  on  April  1st,  1868,  that  not  a  mile  of  this  work  had 
been  opened;  that  we  covered  in  that  year  over  700  miles  of 
road  and  built  555,  and  laid  589  miles  of  track,  bringing  all 
of  our  material  from  the  Missouri  River,  it  is  no  wonder  that 
Generals  Grant  and  Sherman  could  not  understand  how  the 
problem  before  us  would  be  so  speedily  solved.  As  each  100 
miles  of  road  was  completed  there  came  a  general  acclaim 
from  all  parts  of  the  country  to  our  great  encouragement, 
while  from  our  chiefs  in  New  York  there  was  a  continual 
pressure  for  speed,  they  giving  us  unlimited  means  and  allow- 
ing us  to  stretch  our  forces  out  hundreds  of  miles,  no  matter 
what  additional  cost  it  made  to  each  mile  of  road.  Then  we 
had  the  sympathy  of  the  whole  Mormon  Church  with  us,  Pres- 
ident Young  giving  the  matter  personal  attention,  and  seeing 
that  the  line  over  the  Wasatch  Mountains,  down  the  canon 
and  westward  was  covered  by  Mormons  to  whom  we  let  con- 
tracts, and  we  had  the  additional  incentive  that  the  Central 
Pacific  was  coming  east  nearly  as  fast  as  we  were  going  west. 

We  had  only  one  controversy  with  the  Mormons,  who  had 
been  our  friends  and  had  given  the  full  support  of  the  church 
from  the  time  of  our  first  reconnoissances  until  the  final  com- 
pletion. It  was  our  desire  and  the  demand  of  the  Mormons 
that  we  should  build  through  Salt  Lake  City,  and  we  bent  all 
our  energies  to  find  a  feasible  line  passing  through  that  city 
and  around  the  south  end  of  Great  Salt  Lake  and  across  the 
desert  to  Humboldt  Wells,  a  controlling  point  in  the  line. 
We  found  the  line  so  superior  on  the  north  of  the  lake  that 
we  had  to  adopt  that  route  with  a  view  of  building  a  branch 
to  Salt  Lake  City,  but  Brigham  Young  would  not  have  this, 
and  appealed  over  my  head  to  the  Board  of  Directors,  who 
referred  the  question  to  the  Government  Directors,  who  fully 


34  HOW   AVE   BUILT  THE   UNION  PACIFIC 

sustained  me.  Then  Brigham  Young  gave  his  allegiance  and 
aid  to  the  Central  Pacific,  hoping  to  bring  them  around  the 
south  end  of  the  lake  and  force  us  to  connect  with  them  there. 
He  even  went  so  far  as  to  deliver  in  the  Tabernacle  a  great 
sermon  denouncing  me,  and  stating  a  road  could  not  be  built 
or  run  without  the  aid  of  the  Mormons.  When  the  Central 
Pacific  engineers  made  their  survey  they,  too,  were  forced  to 
adopt  the  line  north  of  the  lake.  Then  President  Young  re- 
turned to  his  first  love,  the  Union  Pacific,  and  turned  all  his 
forces  and  aid  to  that  road. 

During  the  building  of  the  road  the  question  of  bridging 
the  Missouri  River  was  under  discussion,  and  continuous  exam- 
inations of  the  river  in  sounding,  watching  currents,  etc.,  was 
had.  Three  points  were  finally  determined  upon  as  most  feasi- 
ble. First — Child's  Mill,  which  was  a  high  bridge,  the  short- 
est, and  reached  Muddy  Creek  with  a  thirty-five  foot  grade, 
avoiding  the  heavy  sixty-six  foot  grade  at  Omaha.  Second — 
Telegraph  Pole,  right  where  there  was  some  rock  bottom,  this 
to  be  a  low  draw-bridge,  and  Third — The  M.  &  M.  crossing 
for  a  high  bridge.  The  latter  was  decided  upon  more  especially 
to  meet  the  views  of  Omaha,  and  for  aid  that  city  gave  the 
company.  We  began  work  on  the  bridge  in  1868,  and  con- 
tinued it  in  1869  and  1870,  but  the  company  found  it  impos- 
sible to  continue,  as  they  had  no  funds,  and  they  could  not 
issue  any  securities  under  their  charter  to  pay  for  the  work. 
J  was  very  anxious  the  bridge  should  be  built  to  utilize  the 
thousand  acres  of  land  I  had  bought  for  our  terminals  in  Iowa, 
and  to  fix  permanently  and  practically  the  terminus  in  Iowa. 
The  company  proposed  to  me  to  organize  a  bridge  company 
to  interest  the  Iowa  roads  terminating  at  Council  Bluffs,  and 
ask  authority  from  the  Government  to  construct  the  bridge 
and  issue  securities  upon  it,  the  Union  Pacific  agreeing  to  use 
the  bridge  and  make  its  terminals  and  connections  with  the 
Iowa  roads  on  the  Iowa  side.  I  incorporated  the  Council  Bluffs 
Railway  &  Missouri  Bridge  Company,  and  went  before  Con- 
gress for  permission  to  bridge  the  Missouri  River  at  the  M. 
&  M.  crossing.  I  saw  all  the  Iowa  roads.  They  agreed  to  give 
their  aid,  but  made  the  condition  that  their  connection  with 
the  Union  Pacific  should  be  on  the  Iowa  side.   I  went  to  Wash- 


HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  3  5 

ington,  presented  the  bill,  passed  it  through  the  House  and 
left  it  in  Senator  Harlan's  hands  to  pass  it  in  the  Senate.  This 
was  very  quietly  done,  but  Omaha  got  alarmed,  and  Governor 
Saunders,  who  was  a  personal  friend  of  Senator  Harlan,  took 
the  matter  up,  and  I  think  went  to  Washington.  The  Omaha 
people  interested  themselves  in  stirring  up  opposition  in  Coun- 
cil Bluffs.  A  public  meeting  was  held  at  the  corner  of  Broad- 
way and  Pearl  Streets,  over  which  Mr.  J.  W.  Crawford 
presided.  I  was  very  seriously  criticised  and  the  independent 
bridge  scheme  denounced,  the  contention  being  that  the  bridge 
should  be  a  part  of  the  Union  Pacific,  although  it  was  entirely 
and  solely  in  the  interests  of  Council  Bluffs,  and  would  have 
brought  the  terminus  and  business  of  the  Union  Pacific  to 
the  Bluffs,  as  they  had  entered  into  an  agreement  with  the 
Iowa  roads  to  that  effect.  The  public  meeting  was  addressed 
in  favor  of  the  bridge  by  Messrs.  Pusey,  Officer  and  myself, 
also  Mr.  Caleb  Baldwin  and  others,  and  was  opposed  by 
Messrs.  James  Montgomery,  Larimer  and  others.  The  meeting 
passed  resolutions  asking  our  Senators  to  defeat  the  bridge 
bill.  Senator  Harlan  acted  on  this  resolution  and  defeated  the 
bill  in  the  Senate,  and  Saunders  and  Omaha  accomplished  their 
work.  The  Union  Pacific  Company  was  greatly  disgusted  and 
disappointed,  and  dropped  for  the  time  all  efforts  to  build  a 
bridge.  If  the  bill  had  passed  the  bridge  would  have  been  built 
in  the  interests  of  Council  Bluffs  and  the  Iowa  roads.  The 
Union  Pacific  later  on  applied  to  Congress,  which  passed  a 
bill  authorizing  the  Union  Pacific  to  build  a  bridge,  issue 
bonds  and  stock  upon  it,  the  interest  upon  them  to  be  paid 
from  the  revenue  of  the  bridge,  and  placed  it  entirely  in  their 
control,  but  the  Union  Pacific  had  no  great  interest  in  coming 
to  Council  Bluffs  or  Iowa,  and  made  their  terminus  at  Omaha, 
and  forced  the  Iowa  roads  over  the  bridge  until  1875,  when  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  decided  that  the  Union  Pacific 
should  be  operated  from  Council  Bluffs  westward  as  a  con- 
tinuous line  for  all  purposes  of  communication,  travel  and 
transportation,  and  especially  ordered  them  to  start  all  through 
passenger  and  freight  trains  westward-bound  from  the  Bluffs. 
This  came  too  late  to  cure  the  mischief  the  town  meeting  had 
accomplished,  as  the  Union  Pacific  had  its  interests  centered 


36  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

in  Omaha,  its  offices  located  there,  and  the  Iowa  roads  had 
made  their  contracts  and  gone  there,  and  the  Bluffs  has  only 
reaped  the  benefit  of  its  terminal  that  the  growth  of  business 
has  forced  to  them,  whereas  by  law,  by  economy  of  operation, 
and  by  the  ample  terminals  made  to  accommodate  it,  it  should 
have  been  the  actual  terminus,  and  should  have  received  full 
benefit  of  it,  not  only  from  traffic  of  the  Union  Pacific,  but  from 
the  traffic  and  interest  of  the  Iowa  roads.  The  Union  Pacific 
completed  the  first  bridge  crossing  the  Missouri  River  and 
opened  it  for  traffic  on  March  22,  1872. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  problems  we  had  to  solve  was  to 
keep  sufficient  material  at  the  terminals  to  supply  the  daily 
demand.  This  work  fell  to  Webster  Snyder  and  his  assistant, 
H.  M.  Hoxie,  who  had  charge  of  the  operation  of  the  com- 
pleted road.  They  were  both  young  men  in  the  business  then, 
but  have  been  at  the  head  of  great  corporations  since.  They 
performed  their  work  successfully  and  with  ability.  Hoxie 
said  to  me  once,  in  answer  to  a  question,  "We  do  not  take 
our  hand  off  the  throttle  night  or  day  until  we  know  the  front 
is  supplied." 

The  operating  department  also  had  the  Indians  to  contend 
with.  An  illustration  of  this  came  to  me  after  our  track  had 
passed  Plum  Creek,  200  miles  west  of  the  Missouri  River.  The 
Indians  had  captured  a  freight  train  and  were  in  possession 
of  it  and  its  crews.  It  so  happened  that  I  was  coming  down 
from  the  front  with  my  car,  which  was  a  traveling  arsenal. 
At  Plum  Creek  station  word  came  of  this  capture  and  stopped 
us.  On  my  train  were  perhaps  twenty  men,  some  a  portion  of 
the  crew,  some  who  had  been  discharged  and  sought  passage 
to  the  rear.  Nearly  all  were  strangers  to  me.  The  excitement 
of  the  capture  and  the  reports  coming  by  telegraph  of  the 
burning  of  the  train,  brought  all  men  to  the  platform,  and 
when  I  called  upon  them  to  fall  in,  to  go'  forward  and  retake 
the  train,  every  man  on  the  train  went  into  line,  and  by  his 
position  showed  that  he  was  a  soldier.  We  ran  down  slowly 
until  we  came  in  sight  of  the  train.  I  gave  the  order  to  deploy 
as  skirmishers,  and  at  the  command  they  went  forward  as 
steadily  and  in  as  good  order  as  we  had  seen  the  old  soldiers 
climb  the  face  of  Kenesaw  under  fire. 


S.    B.    REED 
Superintendent  of  Construction,  Union  Pacific  Railway 


HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  37 

Nearly  all  the  engineers  and  chiefs  of  the  different  units 
of  the  construction  of  the  line  have  risen  to  distinction  in  their 
profession  since  the  road  was  built.  The  chiefs  of  the  parties 
were  S.  B.  Reed,  F.  M.  Case,  James  A.  Evans,  Percy  T.  Brown, 
L.  L.  Hills  (the  two  latter  killed  by  the  Indians),  J.  E.  House, 
M.  F.  Hurd,  Thomas  H.  Bates,  F.  C.  Hodges,  James  R.  Maxwell, 
John  O'Neil,  Francis  E.  Appleton,  Colonel  J.  0.  Hudnut,  J.  F. 
McCabe,  Mr.  Morris  and  Jacob  Blickensderfer. 

Our  principal  geologist  was  David  Van  Lennep,  whose 
reports  upon  the  geology  of  the  country  from  the  Missouri 
River  to  the  Pacific  have  been  remarkably  verified  in  later  and 
more  detailed  examinations. 

The  superintendents  of  construction  were  S.  B.  Reed  and 
James  A.  Evans,  both  of  whom  had  been  connected  with  the 
road  since  1864.  They  had  independent  and  thorough  organ- 
izations. Mr.  S.  B.  Reed  was  a  very  competent  engineer,  and 
had  had  large  experience  in  his  profession.  He  was  very  suc- 
cessful in  utilizing  the  Mormons  in  his  work  west  of  the  Green 
River.  Mr.  Reed  and  Mr.  Hurd  afterwards  made  some  of  the 
most  difficult  locations  over  the  mountain  ranges  for  the  Cana- 
dian Pacific. 

Mr.  Reed's  principal  assistant  was  M.  F.  Hurd,  who  served 
in  the  Second  Iowa  infantry  during  the  Civil  War.  I  detailed 
him  on  my  staff  as  an  engineer,  and,  although  a  private,  he  won 
distinction  in  all  the  campaigns  for  his  ability,  nerve,  bravery 
and  modesty.  On  the  Union  Pacific,  as  well  as  other  trans- 
continental lines  with  which  he  has  been  connected,  he  has 
performed  some  remarkable  engineering  work.  He  has  had  to 
fight  many  times  for  the  lives  of  himself  and  party,  and  no 
matter  what  odds  have  been  against  him,  he  has  never  failed 
to  maintain  his  position  and  win  his  battles,  though  at  times 
the  chances  looked  desperate. 

The  track  laying  on  the  Union  Pacific  was  a  science.  Mr. 
W.  A.  Bell,  in  an  article  on  the  Pacific  Railroads,  describes, 
after  witnessing  it,  as  follows : 

"We,  pundits  of  the  far  East,  stood  upon  that  embank- 
ment, only  about  a  thousand  miles  this  side  of  sunset,  and 
backed  westward  before  that  hurrying  corps  of  sturdy  oper- 
ators with  a  mingled  feeling  of  amusement,  curiosity  and  pro- 


38  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC 

found  respect.  On  they  came.  A  light  car,  drawn  by  a  single 
horse,  gallops  up  to  the  front  with  its  load  of  rails.  Two  men 
seize  the  end  of  a  rail  and  start  forward,  the  rest  of  the  gang 
taking  hold  by  twos,  until  it  is  clear  of  the  car.  They  come 
forward  at  a  run.  At  the  word  of  command  the  rail  is  dropped 
in  its  place,  right  side  up  with  care,  while  the  same  process 
goes  on  at  the  other  side  of  the  car.  Less  than  thirty  seconds 
to  a  rail  for  each  gang,  and  so  four  rails  go  down  to  the  min- 
ute. Quick  work,  you  say,  but  the  fellows  on  the  Union  Pacific 
are  tremendously  in  earnest.  The  moment  the  car  is  empty  it 
is  tipped  over  on  the  side  of  the  track  to  let  the  next  loaded  car 
pass  it,  and  then  it  is  tipped  back  again,  and  it  is  a  sight  to 
see  it  go  flying  back  for  another  load,  propelled  by  a  horse 
at  full  gallop  at  the  end  of  sixty  or  eighty  feet  of  rope,  ridden 
by  a  young  Jehu,  who  drives  furiously.  Close  behind  the  first 
gang  come  the  gaugers,  spikers  and  bolters,  and  a  lively  time 
they  make  of  it.  It  is  a  grand  'Anvil  Chorus'  that  those  sturdy 
sledges  are  playing  across  the  plains.  It  is  in  a  triple  time, 
three  strokes  to  the  spike.  There  are  ten  spikes  to  a  rail,  four 
hundred  rails  to  a  mile,  eighteen  hundred  miles  to  San  Fran- 
cisco— twenty-one  million  times  are  those  sledges  to  be  swung 
— twenty-one  million  times  are  they  to  come  down  with  their 
sharp  punctuation,  before  the  great  work  of  modern  America 
is  complete." 

The  entire  track  and  a  large  part  of  the  grading  on  the 
Union  Pacific  Railway  was  done  by  the  Casement  Brothers, 
General  Jack  Casement  and  Dan  Casement.  General  Casement 
had  been  a  prominent  brigade  and  division  commander  in 
the  Western  army.  Their  force  consisted  of  100  teams  and 
1,000  men,  living  at  the  end  of  the  track  in  boarding  cars  and 
tents,  and  moved  forward  with  it  every  few  days.  It  was  the 
best  organized,  best  equipped  and  best  disciplined  track  force 
I  have  ever  seen.  I  think  every  chief  of  the  different  units 
of  the  force  had  been  an  officer  of  the  army,  and  entered  on 
this  work  the  moment  they  were  mustered  out.  They  could  lay 
from  one  to  three  miles  of  track  per  day,  as  they  had  material, 
and  one  day  laid  eight  and  a  half  miles.  Their  rapidity  in  track 
laying,  as  far  as  I  know,  has  never  been  excelled.  I  used  it  sev- 
eral times  as  a  fighting  force,  and  it  took  no  longer  to  put  it 


GENERAL    J.     S.     CASEMENT 

Casement  Bros,  laid  all  the  track  and  did  a  large  part  of  the 

grading  of  the   Union    Pacific   Railway 


HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  3  9 


into  fighting  line  than  it  did  to  form  it  for  its  daily  work. 
They  not  only  had  to  lay  and  surface  the  track,  but  had  to 
bring  forward  to  the  front  from  each  base  all  the  material 
and  supplies  for  the  track  and  for  all  workmen  in  advance 
of  the  track.  Bases  were  organized  for  the  delivery  of  material 
generally  from  one  to  two  hundred  miles  apart,  according 
to  the  facilities  for  operation.  These  bases  were  as  follows : 
First,  Fremont;  second,  Fort  Kearney;  third,  North  Platte; 
fourth,  Julesburg;  fifth,  Sidney;  sixth,  Cheyenne;  seventh, 
Laramie;  eighth,  Benton  (the  last  crossing  of  the  North 
Platte);  ninth,  Green  River;  tenth,  Evanston;  eleventh, 
Ogden,  and  finally  Promontory. 

At  these  bases  large  towns  were  established,  which  moved 
forward  with  the  bases,  and  many  miles  of  sidings  were  put 
in  for  switching  purposes,  unloading  tracks,  etc.  At  these 
prominent  points  I  have  seen  as  many  as  a  thousand  teams 
waiting  for  their  loads  to  haul  forward  to  the  front  for  the 
railway  force,  the  Government  and  for  the  limited  population 
then  living  in  that  country.  I  have  seen  these  terminal  towns 
starting  first  with  a  few  hundred  people  until  at  Cheyenne, 
at  the  base  of  the  mountains,  where  we  wintered  in  1867-68, 
there  were  10,000  people.  From  that  point  they  decreased  until 
at  Green  River  there  were  not  over  1,000.  After  we  crossed 
the  first  range  of  mountains  we  moved  our  bases  so  rapidly 
they  could  not  afford  to  move  with  us. 

In  1865  Oakes  and  Oliver  Ames  of  Boston  became  inter- 
ested in  the  enterprise,  bringing  their  own  fortune  and  a  very 
large  following,  and  really  gave  the  first  impetus  to  the  build- 
ing of  the  road.  There  was  no  man  connected  with  it  who 
devoted  his  time  and  money  with  the  single  purpose  of  benefit 
to  the  country  and  Government  more  than  Oakes  Ames,  and 
there  was  never  a  more  unjust,  uncalled  for  and  ungrateful 
Act  of  Congress  than  that  which  censured  him  for  inducing, 
as  it  is  claimed,  members  of  Congress  to  take  interest  in  the 
construction  company.  When  they  took  it  there  was  no  neces- 
sity for  the  company  having  influence  in  Congress,  for  there 
was  nothing  we  could  ask  that  Congress  did  not  give,  and  it 
certainly  never  occurred  to  him  that  he  might  secure  benefits 
from  their  votes.    Now  that  the  Government  has  been  paid 


40  HOW  WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

every  dollar  that  it  invested,  with  interest,  it  is  time  that  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  should  wipe  that  unjust  Act 
from  its  record. 

The  instructions  given  me  by  Oliver  Ames,  the  president 
of  the  company,  were  invariably  to  obtain  the  best  line  the 
country  afforded,  regardless  of  the  expense.  Oakes  Ames  once 
wrote  me,  when  it  seemed  almost  impossible  to  raise  money  to 
meet  our  expenditures:  "Go  ahead;  the  work  shall  not  stop, 
even  if  it  takes  the  shovel  shop." 

The  Ameses  were  manufacturers  of  shovels  and  tools,  and 
their  fortunes  were  invested  in  that  business;  and,  as  we  all 
know,  the  shovel  shop  went.  When  the  day  came  that  the 
business  of  the  Ameses  should  go  or  the  Union  Pacific,  Oakes 
Ames  said:   "Save  the  credit  of  the  road;    I  will  fail." 

It  took  a  man  of  courage  and  patriotism  to  make  that 
decision  and  lay  down  a  reputation  and  business  credit  that 
was  invaluable  in  New  England  and  one  that  had  come  down 
through  almost  a  century.  To  him  it  was  worse  than  death; 
and  it  was  the  blow  given  by  the  action  of  Congress  which, 
followed  by  others,  put  him  in  his  grave. 

In  February,  1875,  Mr.  Jay  Gould,  who  had  become  heavily 
interested  in  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  in  connection  with 
Messrs.  Ames,  Dillon  and  the  Board  of  Directors,  conceived 
a  plan  of  paying  to  the  Government  in  addition  to  the  sum 
it  was  then  receiving  from  the  company  a  sum  of  money  each 
year  that  should  be  used  as  a  sinking  fund,  which  at  the  matur- 
ity of  the  Government  bond,  would  liquidate  that  indebtedness. 
The  Hon.  James  F.  Wilson,  of  Iowa,  a  Government  director, 
and  myself,  were  selected  to  go  to  Washington  to  present  the 
matter  to  the  Government.  General  Grant  was  then  President, 
and  General  Benjamin  F.  Bristow  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
We  presented  the  proposition  to  General  Grant,  who  looked 
upon  it  favorably,  and  referred  it  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  for  the  purpose  of  having  a  bill  drawn  which  would 
carry  out  our  views.  The  entire  Cabinet  was  in  favor  of  the 
proposition  with  the  single  exception  of  Mr.  Jewell  of  Con- 
necticut. Upon  the  report. of  General  Bristow,  General  Grant 
drafted  a  message  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  rec- 


HOW  WE  BUILT  THE  UNION  PACIFIC  41 

ommending  the  passage  of  an  Act  that  would  carry  out  this 
plan. 

In  the  meantime  rumors  of  what  we  were  doing  had 
reached  New  York,  where  there  was  a  large  short  interest 
in  the  stock  of  the  Union  Pacific.  This  interest  immediately 
gathered  its  forces  and  influence  and  sent  persons  to  Wash- 
ington to  represent  to  the  President  that  the  proposed  action 
of  the  Union  Pacific  was  a  mere  stock- jobbing  scheme  for  the 
purpose  of  twisting  the  shorts  on  Union  Pacific  stock,  and 
their  representations  made  such  an  impression  on  General 
Grant  that  he  never  sent  his  message  in,  and  the  company, 
receiving  the  treatment  it  did,  then  abandoned  for  the  time 
all  efforts  to  make  a  settlement  with  the  Government.  Gen- 
eral Grant  often  said  to  me  in  later  years  that  he  regretted  he 
did  not  settle  the  matter  at  that  time.  This  demonstrates  that 
at  the  moment  the  Union  Pacific  began  to  be  prosperous  the 
men  who  put  their  money  in  it  and  built  it  made  the  first 
effort  to  pay  the  debt  due  the  Government  at  or  before  its 
maturity.  If  their  offer  had  been  accepted  the  earnings  of  the 
company  demonstrated  that  they  would  have  been  able  to 
have  met  their  agreement,  and  at  the  maturity  of  the  debt 
it  would  have  been  paid.  This  is  one  of  the  many  instances 
in  which  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  has  endeavored  to  fulfill, 
not  only  in  letter,  but  in  spirit,  every  obligation  it  owed  to 
the  Government,  and  I  undertake  to  say  that  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  from  the  time  the  road  was  finally  com- 
pleted and  in  continuous  operation;  has  never  fulfilled  any 
one  of  its  obligations  to  the  company,  except  the  simple  giv- 
ing of  its  credit  at  the  time  of  the  building  by  the  issue  of 
its  bonds. 

How  well  our  work  was  performed  is  shown  by  the  re- 
ports of  the  distinguished  commissions  appointed  by  the  Gov- 
ernment to  examine  the  road  during  its  construction  and  after 
its  completion. 

Commissioners  Horace  Walbridge,  S.  M.  Felton,  C.  B. 
Comstock,  E.  F.  "Winslow  and  J.  F.  Boyd  examined  the  road 
in  1869  to  ascertain  the  sum  of  money  that  was  necessary  to 
complete  the  road  under  the  Government  specifications,  and 
the  sum  found  necessary  on  the  Union  Pacific  was  $1,586,100, 


42  HOW  WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

and  on  the  Central  Pacific  $576,650.  The  amount  required  on 
the  Union  Pacific  was  only  about  one-half  as  much  as  the 
chief  engineer  of  that  road  had  found  necessary  to  complete 
the  road  under  the  company's  own  specifications,  and  the 
company  not  only  spent  this,  but  a  much  larger  sum  in  the 
work. 

The  last  commission  composed  of  Major-General  G.  K. 
Warren,  United  States  Army,  J.  Blickensderfer,  Jr.,  and  James 
Barnes,  civil  engineers,  concluded  their  report  in  part,  as  fol- 
lows: 

"The  foregoing  shows  that  the  location  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railway  is  in  accordance  with  the  law,  and  as  a  whole 
and  in  its  different  parts  the  most  direct,  central  and  practi- 
cable that  would  be  found  from  Omaha  to  the  head  of  Great 
Salt  Lake.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  has 
been  well  constructed.  The  energy  and  perseverance  with 
which  the  work  has  been  urged  forward,  and  the  rapidity 
with  which  it  has  been  executed,  was  without  parallel  in 
history.  In  grandeur  and  magnitude  of  the  undertaking  it 
has  never  been  equalled,  and  the  country  has  reason  to  con- 
gratulate itself  upon  this  great  work  of  national  importance 
so  rapidly  approaching  completion  under  such  favorable  aus- 
pices." 

When  the  Canadian  Government  determined  to  build  a 
Pacific  railway,  they  had  the  Union  Pacific  examined,  and 
after  that  examination  they  provided  in  their  contracts  that 
the  Canadian  Pacific  should  be  built  upon  the  Union  Pacific 
standards,  and  when  completed  should  be  in  its  location  and 
construction  equal  to  it,  thus  paying  a  high  compliment  to 
the  builders  of  the  Union  Pacific,  and  after  the  completion 
of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  engineers  of  the  Union  Pa- 
cific were  selected  to  examine  that  road  to  determine  if  its 
construction  was  up  to  the  standard  required. 

The  Blickensderfer  and  Clement  report  made  a  compar- 
ative analysis  of  the  Union  Pacific  and  Central  Pacific,  their 
location,  construction,  grade,  curvature,  etc.,  giving  to  the 
Union  Pacific  credit  for  being  superior  in  most  of  these  mat- 
ters. The  last  and  most  critical  examination  of  the  location, 
grades,  etc.,  came  within  the  last  three  years,  when  under  the 


HOW  WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC  43 

reorganized  company  it  was  determined  to  reduce  the  grades 
to  a  maximum  of  forty-seven  feet  going  east  or  west  except 
at  two  points,  the  eighty-foot  grade  at  Cheyenne  going  west, 
and  the  eighty-foot  grade  at  the  head  of  Echo  Canon  going 
east. 

The  President  of  the  Union  Pacific,  Mr.  E.  H.  Harriman, 
at  a  banquet  in  Denver  in  1904,  stated  that  after  the  three 
years'  examination,  and  the  expenditure  of  fifteen  to  twenty 
millions  of  dollars  to  change  the  grades  to  a  maximum  of 
forty-seven  feet  to  the  mile,  it  had  been  demonstrated  that 
not  a  mile  of  road  had  been  built  to  increase  the  distance  and 
obtain  subsidies,  that  the  location  and  construction  was  a 
credit  to  the  engineers  and  executive  officers  who  built  the 
road. 

Mr.  J.  B.  Berry,  chief  engineer  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road, who  had  charge  of  the  changes,  pays  this  tribute  to  the 
engineers  of  the  road : 

"It  may  appear  to  those  unfamiliar  with  the  character 
of  the  country  that  the  great  saving  in  distance  and  reduc- 
tion of  grade  would  stand  as  a  criticism  of  the  work  of  the 
pioneer  engineers  who  made  the  original  location  of  the  road. 
Such  is  not  the  case.  The  changes  made  have  been  expensive 
and  could  be  warranted  only  by  the  volume  of  traffic  handled 
at  the  present  day.  Too  much  credit  cannot  be  given  General 
G.  M.  Dodge  and  his  assistants.  They  studied  their  task  thor- 
oughly and  performed  it  well.  Limited  by  law  to  a  maximum 
gradient  of  116  feet  to  the  mile,  not  compensated  for  curv- 
ature, they  held  it  down  to  about  ninety  feet  per  mile.  Taking 
into  consideration  the  existing  conditions  thirty-five  years 
ago ;  lack  of  maps  of  the  country,  hostility  of  the  Indians, 
which  made  United  States  troops  necessary  for  protection  of 
surveying  parties,  difficult  transportation,  excessive  cost  of 
labor,  uncertainty  as  to  probable  volume  of  traffic,  limited 
amount  of  money  and  necessity  to  get  the  road  built  as  soon 
as  possible,  it  can  be  said,  with  all  our  present  knowledge  of 
the  topography  of  the  country,  that  the  line  was  located  with 
very  great  skill." 

The  principal  changes  made  by  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
since  1900,  was  first  the  change  from  the  Muddy  Creek  line 


44  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC 

out  of  Omaha  to  the  original  Dey  line,  now  known  as  the 
Lane  Cut-off,  which  saves  eleven  miles  in  fourteen  miles  dis- 
tance. The  next  is  the  line  from  Sherman  to  the  Laramie 
Plains,  where  by  long  tunnels  and  heavy  work,  the  grade  is 
reduced  from  ninety  feet  to  forty-seven  feet  maximum.  The 
third  change  is  the  Cooper  Lake  line,  which  is  changed  from 
Rock  Creek  and  Medicine  Bow  to  near  the  original  location 
of  the  Union  Pacific,  with  a  saving  of  twenty  miles  in  dis- 
tance. This  is  the  change  made  when  the  line  was  building 
by  the  contractors  against  the  protest  of  the  chief  engineer  of 
the  road  and  caused  Generals  Grant  and  Sherman  to  come  to 
.Fort  Sanders  for  a  conference.  The  fourth  change  was  on  the 
Central  Pacific  road  from  Ogden  across  Bear  Creek,  arm  of  Salt 
lake,  known  as  Lucien  Cut-off,  saving  fifty  miles  in  distance  and 
avoiding  the  heavy  grades  over  Promontory  Point.  The  orig- 
inal survey  of  the  Union  Pacific  was  from  Ogden  across  Bear 
Creek,  arm  of  Salt  Lake,  to  south  end  of  Promontory  Point, 
but  as  stated  in  another  part  of  this  paper,  was  abandoned 
because  of  the  twelve-foot  of  higher  water  in  the  lake  in  1869, 
when  the  line  was  built,  than  in  1900,  when  the  change  was 
made.  I  understand  the  lake  has  been  rising  about  one  foot 
a  year  since  this  cut-off  was  completed.  In  a  letter  which  I 
received  from  Mr.  James  R.  Maxwell,  assistant  engineer,  he 
makes  the  following  statement  of  the  result  of  their  survey 
in  1867: 

"'The  boat  we  used  in  sounding  the  lake  was  made  of 
inch  boards  and  not  caulked  very  well,  and  the  heavy  water 
soon  shook  the  caulking  out  of  the  bottom  and  it  did  seem  for 
a  short  time  that  we  would  have  to  take  to  the  water.  That 
was  on  our  way  back  from  Promontory  Point  to  Mud  Island. 
After  we  landed  the  Topographer  told  me  that  he  could  not 
swim;  if  I  had  known  that,  he  would  not  have  been  on  the 
boat.  When  I  found  twenty-two  feet  of  water  where  Captain 
Stansbury  had  only  ten,  I  knew  that  that  line  was  not  feasible 
then.  I  was  told  by  a  Mormon  bishop  that  on  two  occasions, 
the  annual  rise  was  six  feet  above  any  previous  record  and 
that  it  remained  so,  covering  thousands  of  acres  of  farming 
land  at  northeastern  side  of  the  lake." 


HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC  45 

This  part  of  the  lake  that  was  sounded  by  this  party  was 
east  of  Promontory  Point.  The  water  to  the  west  of  Promon- 
tory Point  being  twice  as  deep  as  that  towards  the  east ;  there- 
fore, it  was  impossible  for  us  with  our  means  to  build  a  rail- 
road across  the  lake  and  we  were  forced  around  the  north  end 
of  the  lake  and  over  Promontory  Point. 

The  first  surveys  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  were  made 
in  the  fall  of  1853.  The  first  grading  was  done  in  the  fall  of 
1864.  The  first  rail  was  laid  in  July,  1865.  Two  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  were  built  in  1866,  240  in  1867,  including  the  ascent 
of  the  first  range  of  mountains  to  an  elevaiton  of  8,235  feet 
above  sea  level,  and  from  April  1,  1868,  to  May  10.  1869,  555 
miles  of  road  was  built,  all  exclusive  of  temporary  track  and 
sidings,  of  which  over  180  miles  was  built  in  addition,  all  at  an 
approximate  cost,  in  cash,  of  about  $54,000,000. 

Of  late  years  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  criticism  and 
comparison  of  the  building  of  the  Union  Pacific  and  Central 
Pacific  Railroads,  favoring  the  latter.  The  theory  is  that  be- 
cause the  Central  Pacific  had  the  Sierra  Nevada  Range  to 
tackle  at  first,  it  was  a  more  difficult  problem,  financially  and 
physically,  to  handle  than  the  Union  Pacific  end,  but  this  is 
a  very  great  mistake.  The  Union  Pacific  had  to  bring  all  of 
its  material,  ties,  bridging,  etc.,  from  tide-water  by  rail  or  by 
river.  They  had  to  build  the  first  630  miles  without  any  mate- 
rial on  its  line  to  aid  them  except  the  earth,  and  for  this  they 
only  received  $16,000  per  mile  in  Government  bonds.  There  was 
no  settlement  on  the  line  to  create  any  traffic  or  earnings  along 
the  whole  distance,  which  was  very  difficult  in  appealing  to  the 
people  to  buy  the  bonds  and  furnish  money  for  the  company. 
In  comparison  to  this,  the  Central  Pacific  started  at  Sacra- 
mento with  a  tide-water  base  coming  right  up  to  it,  so  that 
all  the  material  that  had  to  come  from  foreign  or  domestic 
ports  had  the  cheapest  rates  by  sea.  Then  from  Sacramento 
they  had  built  over  the  mountains  to  Virginia  City  to  the 
great  Bonanza  mines  at  Virginia  City,  which  gave  them  a 
large  traffic  at  high  rates,  and  gave  them  very  large  earnings. 
Then  again,  only  a  few  miles  east  of  Sacramento,  the  east  base 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Range  commences,  and  they  received 
immediately  $48,000  in   Government  bonds  per  mile  for  the 


4  6  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

150  miles,  and  $32,000  in  Government  bonds  from  there  on  to 
Salt  Lake,  a  distance  of  barely  200  miles,  more  than  the  630 
miles  that  the  Union  Pacific  had  to  build  on  $16,000  per 
mile.  This  favorable  condition  for  the  Central  Pacific  was 
such  that  the  representatives  of  that  road  had  very  little 
difficulty  in  raising  all  the  money  they  needed  and  having 
for  nearly  one-half  of  their  road  a  fine  traffic  to  help  pay  the 
interest  on  their  bonds. 

I  do  not  speak  of  this  in  criticism  of  the  work  of  the  Cen- 
tral Pacific,  which  was  remarkable,  and  like  that  of  the  Union 
Pacific,  has  never  been  excelled,  but  only  in  comparison  of 
the  difficulties  the  two  companies  had  to  overcome.  -I  am  not 
surprised  that  some  of  the  public  should  take  this  view  of  the 
matter  when  the  later  literature  of  the  Union  Pacific  seems 
to  take  the  same  view  and  devote  what  praise  it  has  to  the 
work  of  the  men  who  built  the  Central  Pacific,  overlooking 
almost  entirely  the  struggles  of  those  who  initiated  the  work  on 
the  line  of  the  Union  Pacific  and  who  furnished  the  funds  to 
explore  the  country  and  determine  the  feasibility  of  the  route 
and  stood  by  it  for  nearly  twelve  years  before  the  Central 
Pacific  was  thought  of.  The  fact  is,  the  Central  Pacific  ob- 
tained no  right  and  did  not  think  of  going  east  of  the  Cali- 
fornia State  line  until  after  the  laws  of  1865  and  1866  had 
been  enacted,  which  gave  them  the  right  to  come  east  of  the 
State  line  of  California  and  made  them  a  part  of  the  trans- 
continental line. 

The  operation  of  the  road  the  first  winter,  1869-70,  gave 
us  a  test  of  what  we  might  expect  from  the  snow.  In  building 
the  road,  we  studied  the  mountains  to  get  our  lines  upon  the 
slopes  that  were  the  least  exposed  to  heavy  snows  and  slides, 
but  we  had  no  means  of  fighting  the  snows  in  the  Laramie 
Plains  except  by  fences  and  sheds,  and  none  were  put  up  until 
the  year  1870,  so  that  when  the  heavy  snows  fell  in  the  winter 
of  1869-70,  it  caught  six  of  our  trains  west  of  Laramie  that 
were  snowed  in  there  some  weeks.  As  a  precaution  in  starting 
our  trains  from  Omaha,  we  put  on  a  box  car  with  a  stove  in 
it  and  loaded  with  provisions,  so  as  to  meet  any  emergency. 
These  six  trains  that  were  caught  in  the  snow  between  Laramie 
and  the  divide  of  the  continent,  had  these  supplies,  and  also 


"■& 


* 


HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  47 

were  supplied  with  sledges  and  snow-shoes  from  Laramie. 
They  had  with  them,  in  charge  of  the  six  trains,  Mr.  H.  M. 
Hoxie,  the  Assistant  Superintendent,  who  managed  to  get 
the  trains  together,  but  the  blizzards  were  so  many  and  so 
fierce  that  it  was  impossible  for  men  to  work  out  in  the  open, 
and  even  when  they  cleared  the  cuts  ahead,  they  would  fill 
up  before  they  could  get  the  trains  through  them.  Probably 
that  winter's  experience  with  snow  was  the  worst  the  Union 
Pacific  has  ever  experienced,  but  Mr.  Hoxie  handled  his  forces 
with  great  ability  and  fed  and  entertained  his  passengers  in 
good  shape.  In  one  train  was  an  opera  company  bound  for 
California,  that  Mr.  Hoxie  used  to  entertain  the  passengers 
with,  so  that  when  the  trains  reached  Salt  Lake  City,  the 
passengers  held  a  meeting  and  passed  resolutions  complimen- 
tary to  Mr.  Hoxie  and  the  Union  Pacific  in  bringing  them 
safely  through.  A  photograph  of  the  trains  was  taken  at  the 
time  they  were  snowed  in  near  Cooper  Lake,  and  a  print  of  it 
is  here  reproduced. 

I  cannot  conclude  this  discription  of  the  building  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railway  better  than  quoting  my  conclusions,  as 
stated  in  my  final  report,  sent  to  the  company  and  the  United 
States  Government  on  December  1st,  1869.   It  is  as  follows : 

In  1853,  Henry  Farnam  and  T.  C.  Durant,  the  then  con- 
tractors and  builders  of  the  Missouri  River  Railroad  in  Iowa, 
instructed  Peter  A.  Dey  to  investigate  the  question  of  the 
proper  point  for  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri  River  road  to 
strike  the  Missouri  River  to  obtain  a  good  connection  with 
any  road  that  might  be  built  across  the  continent.  I  was  as- 
signed to  the  duty,  and  surveys  were  accordingly  extended  to 
and  up  the  Platte  -Valley,  to  ascertain  whether  any  road  built 
on  the  central  or  then  northern  line  would,  from  the  forma- 
tion of  the  country,  follow  the  Platte  and  its  tributaries  over 
the  plains,  and  thus  overcome  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Subse- 
quently under  the  patronage  of  Mr.  Farnam,  I  extended  the 
examination  westward  to  the  eastern  base  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains and  beyond,  examining  the  practicable  passes  from  the 
Sangre  Christo  to  the  South  Pass;  made  maps  of  the  country, 
and  developed  it  as  thoroughly  as  could  be  done  without  mak- 
ing  purely   instrumental   surveys.     The   practicability   of   the 


48  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

route,  the  singular  formation  of  the  country  between  Long's 
Peak,  the  Medicine  Bow  Mountains,  and  Bridger  Pass,  on  the 
south,  and  Laramie  Peak  and  the  Sweetwater  and  Wind  River 
ranges  on  the  north,  demonstrated  to  me  that  through  this 
region  the  road  must  eventually  be  built.  I  reported  the  facts 
to  Mr.  Farnam,  and  through  his  and  his  friends'  efforts,  the 
prospect  for  a  Pacific  railroad  began  to  take  shape. 

In  after  years,  when  the  war  demonstrated  the  road  to 
be  a  military  necessity,  and  the  government  gave  its  aid  in 
such  munificent  grants,  surveys  were  extended  through  the 
country  previously  explored,  its  resources  developed,  its  hid- 
den treasures  brought  to  light,  and  its  capabilities  for  the 
building  of  a  railway  to  the  Pacific  fully  demonstrated. 

In  doing  this  over  the  country  extending  from  the  Mis- 
souri River  to  the  California  State  line,  and  covering  a  width 
of  200  miles,  north  and  south,  and  on  the  general  direction 
of  the  forty-second  parallel  of  latitude,  some  fifteen  thousand 
miles  of  instrumental  lines  have  been  run,  and  over  twenty- 
five  thousand  miles  of  reconnoissances  made. 

In  1863  and  1864,  surveys  were  inaugurated,  but  in  1866 
the  country  was  systematically  occupied;  and  day  and  night, 
summer  and  winter  the  explorations  were  pushed  forward 
through  dangers  and  hardships  that  very  few  at  this  day 
appreciate,  for  every  mile  had  to  be  run  within  range  of  the 
musket,  as  there  was  not  a  moment's  security.  In  making  the 
surveys  numbers  of  our  men,  some  of  them  the  ablest  and  most 
promising,  were  killed;  and  during  the  construction  our  stock 
was  run  off  by  the  hundred,  I  might  say  by  the  thousand, 
and  as  one  difficulty  after  another  arose  and  was  overcome, 
both  in  the  engineering,  running  and  constructing  depart- 
ments, a  new  era  in  railroad  building  was  inaugurated. 

Each  day  taught  us  lessons  by  which  we  profited  for  the 
next,  and  our  advances  and  improvements  in  the  art  of  rail- 
way construction  were  marked  by  the  progress  of  the  work, 
forty  miles  of  track  having  been  laid  in  1865,  260  in  1866,  240 
in  1867,  including  the  ascent  to  the  summit  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  at  an  elevation  of  8,235  feet  above  the  ocean :  and 
during  1868,  and  to  May  10th,  1869,  555  miles,  all  exclusive 


HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC  49 

of  side  and  temporary  tracks,  of  which  over  180  miles  were 
built  in  addition. 

The  first  grading  was  done  in  the  autumn  of  1864,  and  the 
first  rail  laid  in  July,  1865.  When  you  look  back  to  the  begin- 
ning at  the  Missouri  River,  with  no  railway  communication 
from  the  east,  and  500  miles  of  the  country  in  advance  without 
timber,  fuel  or  any  material  whatever  from  which  to  build  or 
maintain  a  road,  except  the  sand  for  the  bare  road-bed  itself 
with  everything  to  be  transported,  and  that  by  teams  or  at 
best  by  steamboats,  for  hundreds  and  thousands  of  miles; 
everything  to  be  created,  with  labor  scarce  and  high,  you  can 
all  look  back  upon  the  work  with  satisfaction  and  ask,  under 
such  circumstances,  could  we  have  done  more  or  better? 

The  country  is  evidently  satisfied  that  you  accomplished 
wonders,  and  have  achieved  a  work  that  will  be  a  monument 
to  your  energy,  your  ability,  and  to  your  devotion  to  the  enter- 
prise through  all  its  gloomy  as  well  as  its  bright  periods ;  for" 
it  is  notorious  that,  notwithstanding  the  aid  of  the  Govern- 
ment, there  was  so  little  faith  in  the  enterprise  that  its  dark 
days — when  your  private  fortunes  and  your  all  was  staked  on 
the  success  of  the  project — far  exceeded  those  of  sunshine, 
faith  and  confidence. 

This  lack  of  confidence  in  the  project,  even  in  the  West, 
in  those  localities  where  the  benefits  of  its  construction  were 
manifest,  was  excessive,  and  it  will  be  remembered  that  labor- 
ers even  demanded  their  pay  before  they  would  perform  their 
day's  work,  so  little  faith  had  they  in  the  payment  of  their 
wages,  or  in  the  ability  of  the  company  to  succeed  in  their 
efforts.  Probably  no  enterprise  in  the  world  has  been  so 
maligned,  misrepresented  and  criticised  as  this ;  but  now,  after 
the  calm  judgment  of  the  American  people  is  brought  to  bear 
upon  it,  unprejudiced  and  unbiased,  it  is  almost  without  excep- 
tion pronounced  the  best  new  road  in  the  United  States. 

Its  location  has  been  critically  examined,  and  although 
the  route  was  in  a  comparatively  short  time  determined  upon, 
as  compared  with  that  devoted  to  other  similar  projects,  yet, 
in  regard  to  the  correctness  of  the  general  route,  no  question 
is  ever  raised ;  and  even  in  the  details  of  its  location,  730  miles 
of  which  were  done  in  less  than  six  months,  it  has  received  the 


50  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

praise  of  some  of  the  ablest  engineers  of  the  country.  Its  de- 
fects are  minor  ones,  easily  remedied,  and  all  the  various 
commissions,  some  of  them  composed  of  able  and  noted  engi- 
neers, have  given  the  company  due  credit  in  this  particular, 
although  they  may  have  attacked  it  in  others,  and  today,  as  in 
the  past,  the  company  need  fear  no  fair,  impartial  criticism 
upon  it,  or  no  examination  made  by  men  of  ability  and  integ- 
rity, or  such  as  are  masters  of  their  profession. 

That  it  yet  needs  work  to  finally  complete  it  no  one  de- 
nies, but  whatever  is  necessary  has  been  or  is  being  done. 

Its  future  is  fraught  with  great  good.  It  will  develop 
a  waste,  will  bind  together  the  two  extremes  of  the  nation  as 
one,  will  stimulate  intercourse  and  trade  and  bring  harmony, 
prosperity  and  wealth  to  the  two  coasts.  A  proper  policy, 
systematically  and  persistently  followed,  will  bring  to  the  road 
the  trade  of  the  two  oceans,  and  will  give  it  all  the  business  it 
can  accommodate;  while  the  local  trade  will  increase  grad- 
ually until  the  mining,  grazing  and  agricultural  regions 
through  which  it  passes  will  build  up  and  create  a  business 
that  will  be  a  lasting  and  permanent  support  to  the  country. 


ADDRESS   AT   THE   OMAHA   CENTENNIAL. 


I  have  been  asked  to  give  ten  minutes  to  the  construction 
of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway.  Private  enterprise  made  the 
explorations,  determined  the  line  and  built  the  Union  Pacific 
Railway.  Although  the  Government  spent  an  immense  sum  in 
surveying  three  other  routes,  it  did  not  touch  the  most  feasible 
route,  that  of  the  forty-second  parallel. 

In  1852  Farnam  and  Durant  were  building  the  Mississippi 
and  Missouri  road,  now  the  Rock  Island.  They  desired  to  end 
that  line  of  the  Missouri  River  where  the  Pacific  Railroad, 
following  the  continent  forty-second  parallel  of  latitude,  would 
commence.  Under  the  direction  of  Peter  A.  Dey,  who  was  then 
the  chief  engineer  of  that  line,  I  made  the  first  survey  across 
the  State  of  Iowa,  and  the  first  reconnoissances  and  surveys 
on  the  Union  Pacific  for  the  purpose  of  determining  where 
the  one  would  end  and  the  other  commence,  on  the  Missouri 
River.  I  crossed  the  Missouri  River  in  the  fall  of  1853,  and 
made  our  explorations  west  to  the  Platte  Valley  and  up  it  far 
enough  to  determine  that  it  would  be  the  route  of  the  Pacific 
road. 

The  party  that  I  crossed  the  Missouri  River  with  had 
never  come  in  contact  with  the  Indians.  We  were  tenderfeet, 
and  the  Omahas  were  very  free  with  what  we  had,  until  I  had 
to  use  drastic  measures  to  stop  them.  I  went  on  to  the  Elk- 
horn  River,  ahead  of  my  party.  They  stole  my  horse,  but  I 
got  him  back,  so  that  our  initiation  into  Nebraska  was  not  a 
very  creditable  one. 

I  continued  these  reconnoissances  from  1853  on  and  off 
until  1861,  under  the  private  patronage  of  Mr.  Henry  Farnam, 
and  we  also,  during  that  time,  commenced  work  on  the  M. 
&  M.  road  in  Council  Bluffs,  and  graded  it  several  miles 
east,  fixing  its  location  permanently  on  the  Missouri  River. 
The  reconnoissances  made  by  me  during  all  this  time,  with 
the  information  that  I  obtained  from  the  Mormons  and  the 


7,1 


52  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC 

fur-traders  and  travelers  through  the  country,  determined 
the  general  route  of  the  Union  Pacific  road  as  far  west  as 
Salt  Lake,  and  virtually  beyond  that  to  the  California  State 
line. 

In  1862  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  was  organized  at  Chi- 
cago, and  soon  after  Mr.  Peter  A.  Dey  continued  the  explora- 
tions, and  in  1863  he  placed  parties  over  the  Black  Hills  and 
in  Salt  Lake  and  over  the  "Wasatch  in  Utah.  In  1863  I  was  on 
duty  at  Corinth,  when  I  was  called  to  Washington  by  Mr. 
Lincoln,  who  had  met  me  in  1859  at  Council  Bluffs  and  had 
questioned  me  very  systematically  as  to  the  knowledge  I  had  of 
the  Western  country  and  the  explorations  I  had  made  there. 
Remembering  this,  he  called  me  to  Washington  to  consult  with 
me  as  to  where  the  eastern  terminus  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
way should  be.  I  explained  to  him  what  my  surveys  had  deter- 
mined, and  he  fixed  the  initial  point  of  the  Union  Pacific,  as  you 
all  know,  on  the  western  line  of  Iowa  opposite  this  city.  At  this 
interview  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  he  was  very  anxious  to  have  the 
road  constructed.  It  was  my  opinion  then  that  it  could  not  be 
constructed  unless  it  was  built  by  the  Government,  and  I  so 
informed  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  said  that  the  United  States  had 
at  that  time  all  it  could  handle,  but  it  was  ready  to  make  any 
concession  and  obtain  any  legislation  that  private  parties  who 
would  undertake  the  work  would  require. 

I  then  went  to  New  York  City  and  met  Mr.  Durant  and 
others  connected  with  the  Union  Pacific  and  informed  them 
of  what  Mr.  Lincoln  had  said.  It  gave  them  new  hope,  and 
they  immediately  formulated  the  amendments  to  the  law  of 

1862,  which  was  passed  in  1864  and  enabled  them  to  push  the 
work. 

The  ground  was  broken  here  in  Omaha  in  December  of 

1863,  and  in  1864  about  $500,000  was  spent  in  surveying  and 
construction,  and  in  1865  forty  miles  of  road  was  completed  to 
Fremont.  Mr.  Dey,  who  had  charge  of  the  work  up  to  this  time 
as  chief  engineer,  resigned,  and  stated  in  his  letter  that  he  was 
giving  up  the  best  position  in  his  profession  this  country  had 
ever  offered  to  any  man. 

In  May,  1866,  I  resigned  from  the  army,  came  to  Omaha 
and  took  charge  of  the  work  as  chief  engineer,  and  covered 


ADDRESS  AT  THE  OMAHA  CENTENNIAL  53 

the  line  with  engineering  parties  from  Omaha  to  California, 
and  pushed  our  location  up  the  Platte  Valley. 

In  1866  we  built  260  miles.  In  the  winter  of  1866  we 
planned  to  build  the  next  year  288  miles  to  Fort  Sanders.  As 
our  work  had  to  all  be  done  under  the  protection  of  the  mil- 
itary, I  was  continually  in  communication  with  General  Sher- 
man, who  was  then  the  commander  of  this  department,  and 
confidentially  gave  him  our  plans  as  fast  as  they  were  set- 
tled upon. 

In  January,  1867,  I  wrote  him  a  letter,  showing  him  what 
we  proposed  to  do  in  that  year,  and  he  answered  it  from  St. 
Louis  on  January,  1867,  saying:  "I  have  just  read  with  in- 
tense interest  your  letter  of  the  14th.  Although  you  wanted 
me  to  keep  it  to  myself,  I  believe  you  will  sanction  my  sending 
it  to  General  Grant  for  his  individual  perusal,  to  be  returned 
to  me.  It  is  almost  a  miracle  to  grasp  your  proposition  to 
finish  to  Fort  Sanders  this  year,  but  you  have  done  so  much 
that  I  mistrust  my  own  judgment  and  accept  yours."  During 
1867  we  reached  the  summit  of  the  Black  Hills  and  wintered 
at  Cheyenne,  where  the  population  of  nearly  10,000  gathered 
around  us. 

In  November,  1867,  the  Northwestern  Railway  was  com- 
pleted at  Council  Bluffs.  Up  to  this  time  the  amount  of  road 
we  built  each  year  was  limited  to  the  material  that  we  could 
bring  up  the  Missouri  River  on  steamboats  during  about  three 
months'  navigation.  Reaching  the  Black  Hills  also  took  us 
into  the  timber  country,  where  we  could  obtain  ties  within 
twenty-five  or  fifty  miles  from  the  line.  It  was  then  planned, 
during  the  winter  of  1867,  to  build  as  far  west  as  possible, 
and  we  laid  out  plans  to  reach  Ogden,  giving  us  five  hundred 
or  more  miles  to  build.  In  estimating  the  extra  cost  of  build- 
ing this  500  miles,  which  crossed  two  ranges  of  mountains, 
within  a  year,  I  informed  the  company  that  it  would  be  at 
least  ten  millions  of  dollars.  Their  answer  was  to  go  ahead, 
no  matter  what  it  cost. 

During  the  winter  of  1867,  we  accumulated  at  Cheyenne 
all  the  material  possible,  having  the  Northwestern  to  bring 
it  to  us,  and  we  made  every  preparation  to  start  our  work  by 
the  1st  of  April.   When  you  consider  that  material  for  a  mile 


54  HOW  WE  BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

of  road  required  forty  cars,  besides  the  necessary  cars  for 
supplies  and  for  the  population  that  was  along  the  line  of 
the  road,  you  can  imagine  what  it  was  to  supply  the  material 
at  the  end  of  the  line,  which  on  an  average  had  to  be  about 
800  miles,  but  Snyder  and  Hoxie  of  the  operating  department 
grasped  the  situation  and  solved  the  problem.  We  reached 
Ogden  in  the  spring  of  1869,  and  Promontory  Point  on  May 
10,  1869.  During  the  winter  of  '68  the  grading  was  done  over 
the  Wasatch  Mountains,  and  the  earth  was  blasted  there  the 
same  as  rock.  Our  track  was  laid  on  icy  banks.  I  saw  one  of 
the  construction  trains  slide  off  of  the  bank  bodily  into  the 
ditch,  loaded  with  material. 

Prom  the  first  day  of  April,  1868,  until  May  10,  1869,  only 
thirteen  months,  we  built  and  laid  track  of  555  miles  of  road 
and  graded  the  line  to  Humboldt  Wells,  making  the  total  dis- 
tance covered  by  our  force  726  miles,  and  transported  all  the 
material  and  supplies  from  the  Missouri  River.  AVhen  you  con- 
sider that  not  a  mile  of  this  division  of  the  road  had  been 
located  until  April,  that  we  covered  in  that  year  over  700 
miles  of  road,  bringing  all  the  material  from  the  Missouri 
River,  that  we  had  to  overcome  its  two  great  physical  obsta- 
cles, two  ranges  of  mountains,  it  was  a  task  never  equalled 
then  nor  surpassed  since.  It  could  not  have  been  accomplished 
had  it  not  been  for  the  experience  of  the  chiefs. of  the  depart- 
ments in  the  Civil  War. 

The  commission  appointed  by  the  Government  to  examine 
the  work  says :  ' '  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  Union  Pacific  Railway 
has  been  well  constructed.  The  energy  and  perseverance  with 
which  the  work  has  been  urged  forward  and  the  rapidity  with 
which  it  has  been  executed  was  without  parallel  in  history. 
In  grandeur  and  magnitude  of  the  undertaking,  it  has  never 
been  equalled."  It  is  impossible  for  me  in  the  short  time  I 
have  to  speak  individually  of  the  persons  who  took  a  promi- 
nent part  in  the  construction  of  the  line,  but  they  entered  into 
the  work  all  with  one  spirit.  They  worked  from  daylight  till 
dark  and  when  necessary  on  Sundays,  and  it  was  an  esprit  de 
corps  and  a  determination  from  the  head  to  the  foot  of  every- 
one to  accomplish  the  task  set  before  them. 


ADDRESS  AT  THE   OMAHA  CENTENNIAL  55 

The  Indians  were  very  hostile,  often  attacking  us.  I  lost 
two  of  my  chiefs,  and  many  of  the  men  and  any  quantity  of 
stock.  That  failed  to  stop  us,  but  if  it  had  not  been  for 
the  cordial  support  of  Generals  Grant  and  Sherman  and  the 
officers  of  the  army  along  our  lines,  we  would  not  have  suc- 
ceeded. 

When  our  track  was  finished  to  Promontory,  there  assem- 
bled there  the  officials  from  the  East  and  from  the  West.  The 
engineers  of  the  two  lines  ran  their  locomotives  together,  each 
breaking  a  bottle  of  champagne  upon  the  other's  engine,  and 
when  the  last  spike  was  driven  and  the  telegraph  ticked  all 
over  the  world  the  completion  of  the  first  transcontinental 
line  across  our  continent,  I  did  not  forget  to  telegraph  to  my 
old  chief,  General  Sherman,  who  had  taken  such  a  great  inter- 
est in  the  work,  and  received  from  him  this  despatch: 

"In  common  with  millions  I  sat  yesterday  and  heard 
the  mystic  taps  of  the  telegraphic  battery  announce  the  nail- 
ing of  the  last  spike  in  the  great  Pacific  road.  Indeed,  am 
I  its  friend?  Yea.  Yet,  am  I  a  part  of  it,  for  as.  early  as  1854 
I  was  Vice  President  of  the  effort  begun  in  San  Francisco 
under  the  contract  of  Robinson,  Seymour  &  Co.  As  soon  as 
General  Thomas%  makes  certain  preliminary  inspections  in  his 
new  command  on  the  Pacific,  I  will  go  out  and,  I  need  not  say, 
will  have  different  facilities  from  that  of  1846,  when  the  only 
way  to  California  was  by  sail  around  Cape  Horn,  taking  our 
ships  196  days.  All  honor  to  you,  to  Durant  and  Jack  and  Dan 
Casement,  to  Reed,  and  the  thousands  of  brave  fellows  who 
have  wrought  out  this  glorious  problem,  spite  of  changes, 
storms,  and  even  doubts  of  the  incredulous,  and  all  the  obsta- 
cles you  have  now  happily  surmounted. 

"W.  T.  SHERMAN,  General." 

The  rapidity  of  the  building  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway 
caused  many  comments,  and  often  assertions  ^that  the  road 
was  not  thoroughly  built,  that  to  make  distance  and  thereby 
receive  more  bonds,  we  unnecessarily  increased  the  length  of 
the  road ;  that,  to  save  work,  we  often  use  the  maximum 
grade,  and  other  and  similar  criticisms.  The  best  answer 
to  that  has  been  made  in  the  last  three  years.  The  Union 
Pacific    Railway,    under    a    very    able    engineer,    Mr.    Berry, 


56  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC 

has  been  engaged  in  reducing  the  grades  of  the  road,  except 
over  the  two  mountain  ranges  to  a  maximum  of  forty-seven 
feet  per  mile.  It  has  decreased  the  curvature  and  shortened 
the  line  about  thirty-seven  miles.  To  obtain  this,  it  has  cost 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  nearly  one-third  the 
total  cash  cost  of  building  the  road.  Mr.  Berry,  in  his  report 
upon  these  changes,  pays  this  high  compliment  to  those  con- 
nected with  the  location  and  construction  of  the  road: 

"It  may  appear  to  those  unfamiliar  with  the  character 
of  the  country  that  the  great  saving  in  distance  and  reduction 
of  grade  would  stand  as  a  criticism  of  the  work  of  the  pioneer 
engineers  who  made  the  original  location  of  the  railroad.  Such 
is  not  the  case.  The  changes  made  have  been  expensive  and 
could  be  warranted  only  by  the  volume  of  traffic  handled  at 
the  present  day.  Too  much  credit  cannot  be  given  General 
G.  M.  Dodge  and  his  assistants.  They  studied  their  task  thor- 
oughly and  performed  it  well.  Limited  by  law  to  a  maximum 
gradient  of  116  feet  to  the  mile,  not  compensated  for  curva- 
ture, they  held  it  down  to  about  ninety  feet  per  mile.  Taking 
into  consideration  the  existing  conditions  thirty-five  years  ago ; 
lack  of  maps  of  the  country,  hostility  of  the  Indians,  which 
made  United  States  troops  necessary  for  protection  of  survey- 
ing parties,  difficult  transportation,  excessive  cost  of  labor, 
uncertainty  as  to  probable  volume  of  traffic,  limited  amount 
of  money  and  necessity  to  get  road  built  soon  as  possible,  it 
can  be  said,  with  all  our  present  knowledge  of  the  topography 
of  the  country,  that  the  line  was  located  with  very  great  skill." 


^ 


I 

'5 


THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   UNION   PACIFIC   RAILROAD 

AND  ITS  RELATION'  TO  COUNCIL  BLUFFS 

AND  WESTERN  IOWA. 


To  give  the  early  history  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway, 
and  it  relations  to  Council  Bluffs  and  western  Iowa,  necessi- 
tates the  recital  of  the  first  railway  surveys  in  Iowa. 

In  1852  the  M.  &  M.,  now  the  Council  Bluffs,  Rock  Island 
&  Pacific  Railway,  was  chartered  in  the  interest  and  as  an 
extension  of  the  Chicago  &  Rock  Island  Railway,  which  was 
completed  that  year  to  the  Mississippi  River  at  Rock  Island. 

In  May,  1853,  Peter  A.  Dey  left  the  Rock  Island,  of  which 
he  was  a  division  engineer,  stationed  at  Tiskilwa,  and  com- 
menced at  Davenport,  Iowa,  the  first  survey  of  a  railroad  line 
across  the  State  of  Iowa.  I  had  been  with  Mr.  Dey  about  eight 
months  as  rodman,  and  under  his  direction  had  made  a  sur- 
vey of  the  Peoria  &  Bureau  Valley  Railway  in  Illinois.  Mr.  Dey 
was  made  chief  engineer  of  the  M.  &  M.,  and  took  me  to  Iowa 
as  assistant,  and  placed  me  in  charge  of  the  party  in  the  field 
— certainly  a  very  fine  promotion  for  the  limited  experience 
I  had  had — and  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  satisfactions  and 
pleasures  of  my  life  to  have  had  his  friendship  from  the  time 
I  entered  his  service  until  now.  Mr.  Dey  is  not  only  a  very 
distinguished  citizen  of  Iowa,  but  is  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished engineers  of  the  country.  He  was  known  for  his  great 
ability,  his  uprightness  and  the  square  deal  he  gave  every  one, 
and  he  has  greatly  honored  this  state  in  the  many  public  posi- 
tions he  has  held.  I  look  back  upon  my  services  with  him  with 
the  greatest  pleasure.  My  practical  experience  under  him  and 
the  confidence  he  placed  in  me  were  of  incalculable  benefit 
to  me,  and  the  example  he  set  us  has  lasted  me  through  my 
life,  and  I  shall  always  honor,  respect  and  hold  him  in  the 
highest  consideration  and  friendship. 

We  completed  a  survey  and  location  to  Iowa  City  in 
August,  1853.    Early  in  September  we  commenced  the  survey 

—57— 


HOW  WE   BUILT   THE  UNION   PACIFIC 


across  Iowa,  passing  through  Marengo,  Newton,  Des  Moines, 
and  reaching  Council  Bluffs  December  1,  1853,  this  being  the 
first  railway  survey  across  the  state.  Now  commenced  our 
first  reconnoissances  for  the  Union  Pacific  Railway.  We  crossed 
the  river  by  flat-boat  and  extended  our  lines  west  to  the  Platte 
Valley,  and  determined  definitely  the  feasibility  of  a  connec- 
tion with  the  great  Platte  route  with  roads  in  Iowa  terminat- 
ing at  or  near  Council  Bluffs.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the 
Government  in  1853  authorized  the  exploration  of  the  country 
west  of  the  Missouri  River  to  the  Pacific  on  four  different 
routes,  but  made  no  mention  of  the  most  feasible  route,  and 
the  one  that  was  first  built  upon,  known  as  the  forty-second 
parallel  or  Great  Platte  route.  A  well  defined  trail  of  this  route 
was  first  made  by  the  buffalo  and  the  Indians,  followed  by 
the  fur  traders  and  trappers,  then  used  by  the  Mormons  to 
Salt  Lake.  Following  them  came  the  great  overland  emigra- 
tion to  California  and  Oregon,  and  on  this  trail  and  road,  or 
close  to  them,  was  built  the  Union  Pacific  and  Central  Pacific 
to  California,  and  the  Short  Line  branch  of  the  Union  Pacific 
to  Oregon. 

In  our  surveys  to  the  Missouri  River,  Cook  and  Sargent, 
who  were  representatives  of  the  M.  &  M.  Railway  in  Iowa, 
held  large  interests  at  Florence,  Nebraska,  and  were  anxious 
that  our  line  should  terminate  on  the  Missouri  River  opposite 
that  point.  It  was  also  stated  that  the  Missouri  River  at  that 
point  had  rock  bottom.  To  solve  this  question  we  ran  two 
lines,  one  down  Pigeon  Creek,  and  one  down  Mosquito,  and  as 
the  latter  was  superior  in  an  engineering  point  of  view.  Mr. 
Dey  adopted  that  line.  There  was  considerable  opposition  to 
it,  but  his  recommendation  stood.  The  question  of  terminus 
was  so  often  discussed,  and  as  the  Bluffs  people  felt  so  uncer- 
tain as  to  the  final  result,  they  proposed  that  Pottawattamie 
County  should  vote  $300,000  in  bonds  in  aid  of  the  road  if  the 
company  would  commence  work  at  the  Bluffs,  make  it  the 
terminus  and  spend  that  money  in  building  east  through 
Pottawattamie  County.  This  proposition  was  submitted  to 
Messrs.  Farnam  and  Durant,  and  accepted!  The  bonds  were 
voted  and  the  money  raised,  and  it  was  spent  in  grading  a 
portion  of  the  road  in  Pottawattamie  County,  but  the  failure 


ITS  RELATION  TO  COUNCIL  BLUFFS  59 

of  the  M.  &  M.  Company  in  1857  stopped  work  here,  as  well 
as  on  the  rest  of  the  line  in  the  State.  The  Rock  Island,  the 
successor  of  the  M.  &  M.,  occupied  the  line  graded  in  this 
county  when  it  was  built. 

In  the  fall  of  1854  work  was  suspended  on  the  M.  &  M. 
road  in  Iowa,  and  I  moved  to  the  Bluffs  and  under  the  patro- 
nage of  Henry  Farnam  continued  the  explorations  west  for 
the  Union  Pacific  by  getting  all  the  information  I  could  from 
the  Indians  and  fur  traders  and  Mormons  of  the  country  we 
were  finally  to  occupy,  until  the  general  route  of  the  Union 
Pacific  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  was  pretty  fully  settled  in  our  own 
minds. 

There  was  keen  competition  in  the  '50s  for  the  control  of 
the  vast  immigration  crossing  the  plains,  and  Kansas  City, 
Fort  Leavenworth,  St.  Joe  and  Council  Bluffs  were  points  of 
concentration  on  the  Missouri  River.  The  trails  from  all  these 
points  led  to  and  converged  in  the  Platte  Valley  at  Kearney 
and  east  of  it.  A  southern  trail  led  from  Kansas  City  up  the 
Arkansas  to  New  Mexico  and  on  to  the  Pacific  by  the  southern 
route,  but  was  not  much  traveled  west  of  New  Mexico. 

From  my  explorations  and  the  information  I  had  obtained 
I  mapped  and  made  an  itinerary  of  the  whole  Platte  Valley 
route  to  Utah,  California  and  Oregon,  giving  the  camping 
places  for  each  night,  showing  where  wood,  grass  and  water 
could  be  found,  pointing  out  where  the  fords  of  the  different 
streams  could  be  found  and  giving  such  other  information  as 
would  be  valuable  to  immigrants.  The  interests  centering 
around  Council  Bluffs  printed  this  map  and  itinerary  and  sent 
it  broadcast  through  the  western  states,  and  it  had  no  small 
influence  in  turning  the  mass  of  overland  immigration  to  the 
Great  Platte  route.  This  route  was  up  that  river  to  its  forks, 
and  then  either  up  the  north  or  south  fork  to  Salt  Lake,  thence 
to  California  by  the  Humboldt  and  Truckee  Valleys,  branch- 
ing at  South  Pass  or  Fort  Bridger  to  Snake  River  and  by  that 
and  the  Columbia  River  Valleys  to  Oregon. 

Both  Mr.  Dey  and  myself  returned  to  Iowa  City  during 
the  summer  of  1856  to  continue  the  construction  of  the  M.  & 
M.  road,  and  made  everything  ready  for  the  work,  when  the 
panic  of  1857  involved  Mr.  Farnam  financially,  caused  by  Mr. 


60  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

Durant  pledging  the  paper  of  the  firm  of  Durant  &  Farnam  to 
meet  his  speculative  ventures.  This  involved  Mr.  Farnam 's 
collateral  in  litigation,  which  it  took  several  years  to  unravel, 
and  Mr.  Durant 's  connection  with  the  M.  &  M.  contract  was 
fatal  to  the  early  completion  of  that  line  of  railway,  and  Mr. 
Farnam  took  no  further  interest  in  the  project. 

I  returned  to  Council  Bluffs  and  continued  my  examina- 
tions until  1861.  I  remember  that  in  1859,  when  I  returned 
from  a  trip  on  the  plains,  I  met  Mr.  Lincoln  at  the  Pacific 
house.  Mr.  Lincoln  came  up  from  St.  Joseph  on  a  steamer  to 
look  after  an  interest  he  had  bought  in  the  Riddle  tract  from 
N.  B.  Judd  of  Chicago.  He  also  found  here  and  visited  some 
old  Springfield,  Illinois,  friends,  W.  H.  M.  Pusey,  Thomas 
Officer,  and  others.  Mr.  Lincoln  sought  me  out,  and  was  greatly 
interested  in  the  project  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  and  I  gave 
him  all  the  information  I  had,  going  fully  and  thoroughly 
into  it.  I  was  very  decided  that  the  Great  Platte  route  was 
from  our  explorations  and  surveys  the  best,  most  feasible,  and 
far  superior  to  any  of  the  routes  explored  by  the  Government. 

In  1836  the  first  public  meeting  to  consider  the  project 
of  a  Pacific  Railway  was  called  by  John  Plumbe,  a  civil  engi- 
neer of  Dubuque,  Iowa.  Interest  in  a  Pacific  Railway  grew 
from  this  time,  the  exploration  of  Fremont  in  1842  and  1846 
brought  the  attention  of  Congress,  and  A.  C.  "Whitney  was 
zealous  and  efficient  in  the  cause  from  1840  to  1850.  The  first 
practical  measure  was  Senator  Salmon  P.  Chase's  bill  in  1853, 
making  an  appropriation  for  the  explorations  of  different 
routes  for  a  Pacific  Railway.  Numerous  bills  were  introduced 
in  Congress  between  1852  and  1860,  granting  subsidies  and . 
lands,  and  some  of  them  appropriating  as  large  a  sum  as  $96,- 
000,000  for  the  construction  of  the  road.  One  of  these  bills 
passed  one  of  the  houses  of  Congress. 

The  results  of  the  explorations  ordered  by  Congress  were 
printed  in  eleven  large  volumes  covering  the  country  between 
the  thirty-second  and  forty-ninth  parallels  of  latitude,  and 
demonstrated  the  feasibility  of  building  a  Pacific  Railway,  but 
at  a  cost  on  any  one  of  the  lines  much  larger  than  the  Union 
Pacific  and  Central  Pacific  were  built  for.  It  is  a  singular  fact 
that  in  all  these   explorations   the   most  feasible  line   in  an 


ITS  RELATION  TO  COUNCIL  BLUFFS  61 

engineering  and  commercial  point  of  view,  the  line  with  the 
least  obstacles  to  overcome,  of  lowest  grades  and  least  curv- 
ature, was  never  explored  and  reported  on.  Private  enterprise 
explored  and  developed  that  line  along  the  forty-second  par- 
allel of  latitude. 

In  1861  General  S.  R.  Curtis  of  Iowa  reported  for  the  Pa- 
cific Eailway  Committee  of  Congress,  the  first  Pacific  Railroad 
Act,  and  Senator  Harlan  of  Iowa  finally  succeeded  in  making  it 
a  law,  and  in  March,  1862,  the  company  was  organized.  On 
September  2, 1862,  Henry  B.  Ogden  of  Chicago  was  made  Presi- 
dent, Thomas  M.  Olcott,  Vice  President,  and  H.  V.  Poor,  Secre- 
tary. In  August,  1863,  T.  C.  Durant  sent  Peter  A.  Dey  to 
examine  the  passes  over  the  Black  Hills  and  Wasatch  Range. 

On  October  30,  1863,  Mr.  Durant,  in  his  report  to  the 
board,  stated  that  the  explorations  formerly  made  by  General 
G.  M.  Dodge,  and  those  made  by  Mr.  Dey,  proved  of  great 
value.  Mr.  Dey  at  this  meeting  submitted  the  report  of  his 
reconnoissances,  and  the  company  placed  him  in  charge  of  all 
the  surveys,  with  instructions  to  develop  the  line  through  to 
Salt  Lake  City.  Mr.  Dey  took  into  the  field  parties  headed  by 
B.  B.  Brayton,  S.  B.  Reed,  F.  M.  Case,  Joseph  A.  Young,  son 
of  President  Brigham  Young,  and  soon  determined  that  the 
general  route  we  had  originally  reported  upon  was  the  one 
to  be  built  upon. 

The  law  of  1862  did  not  bring  the  results  hoped  for.  No 
money  could  be  raised  under  its  provisions,  and  the  only 
result  was  the  series  of  explorations  made  in  1863,  and  the 
breaking  of  ground  at  Omaha  on  December  21st  of  that  year. 

In  1863,  I  think  about  June,  while  in  command  at  Corinth, 
Mississippi,  I  received  an  order  to  report  in  Washington,  and 
was  informed  that  the  President  wished  to  see  me.  I  had  no 
idea  what  the  President  could  wish  to  see  me  about — in  fact, 
was  a  good  deal  puzzled  at  the  order.  When  I  reached  Wash- 
ington and  called  on  the  President,  I  found  that  he  desired 
to  consult  me  upon  the  proper  place  for  the  initial  point  of  the 
Union  Pacific,  and  that  he  had  not  forgotten  his  conversation 
with  me  in  1859. 

The  towns  on  the  Missouri  River  within  a  distance  of  one 
hundred  miles  of  the  mouth  of  the  Platte  River  were  using 


62  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

their  influence  to  have  the  terminus  made  at  each  one  of  their 
places,  but  it  was  evident  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  determined 
upon  some  point  north  of  the  mouth  of  the  Platte  River,  so 
that  great  valley  could  be  utilized  for  the  route  of  the  rail- 
road. After  his  interview  with  me,  in  which  he  showed  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  the  question,  and  satisfying  himself  as 
to  the  engineering  questions  that  had  been  raised,  I  was  satis- 
fied he  would  locate  the  terminus  at  or  near  Council  Bluffs. 
He  issued  his  first  order  on  November  17,  1863.  It  was  in  his 
own  language,  and  as  follows : 

"I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  do 
hereby  fix  so  much  of  the  western  boundary  of  the  State  of 
Iowa  as  lies  between  the  north  and  south  boundaries  of  the 
United  States  township  within  which  the  City  of  Omaha  is 
situated  as  the  point  from  which  the  line  of  railroad  and  tele- 
graph in  that  section  mentioned  shall  be  constructed." 

,  This  description  was  not  considered  definite  enough  by 
the  company,  and  on  March  7,  1864,  President  Lincoln  issued 
the  second  executive  order,  as  follows : 

"I  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  do 
upon  the  application  of 'said  company  designate  and  establish 
such  first  named  point  on  the  western  boundary  of  the  State 
of  Iowa,  east  of  and  opposite  to  the  east  line  of  Section  10, 
in  Township  15,  south  of  Range  13,  east  of  the  sixth  principal 
Meridian  in  the  Territory  of  Nebraska." 

On  March  8,  1864,  he  notified  the  United  States  Senate 
that  on  the  17th  day  of  November,  1863,  he  had  located  the 
"eastern  terminus  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  within  the 
limits  of  the  township  in  Iowa  opposite  to  the  town  of  Omaha. ' ' 
"Since  then,"  he  says,  "the  company  has  represented  to  me 
that  upon  added  survey  made,  it  has  determined  upon  the 
precise  point  of  departure  of  the  branch  road  from  the  Mis- 
souri River,  and  located  same  within  the  limits  designated 
in  the  order  of  November  last." 

Mr.  Lincoln  also  took  up  with  me  the  construction  of  the 
road.  I  expressed  opinion  that  no  private  enterprise  could 
build  it,  and  that  it  must  be  done  by  the  Government.  He 
answered  that  the  Government  had  its  hands  full  in  the  war, 
but  was  willing  to  support  any  company  to  the  full  extent 


ITS  RELATION  TO  COUNCIL  BLUFFS  63 

of  its  power.  After  saying  good-bye  to  the  President,  I  went 
immediately  to  New  York  and  saw  Messrs.  Durant,  Cisco  and 
others,  then  conected  with  the  company,  and  reported  to  them 
Mr.  Lincoln's  words.  It  gave  new  courage  to  the  company. 
The  law  of  1864  were  passed,  and  Mr.  Dey  let  the  first  con- 
tracts, and  grading  was  started  in  the  fall  of  1864. 

After  the  location  of  the  road  at  Council  Bluffs,  the  first 
serious  question  threatening  Council  Bluffs  was  the  change 
of  Mr.  Dey's  line  from  Omaha  to  Elkhorn,  adding  nine  miles 
in  distance,  claiming  to  avoid  heavy  work  and  heavy  grades. 
Many  saw  in  this  change,  advocated  by  Colonel  Seymour,  the 
consulting  engineer,  and  Mr.  Durant,  the  Vice  President  of  the 
Union  Pacific,  an  intention  of  utilizing  Bellevue  instead  of  the 
Bluffs  as  the  real  terminus  of  the  road,  and  this  aroused  not 
only  Omaha,  but  the  Bluffs  with  all  the  influence  of  Iowa 
against  such  a  result. 

The  main  argument  for  adding  nine  miles  of  distance  in 
thirteen  miles  of  road  was  that  it  eliminated  the  eighty  and 
sixty-six  foot  grades  of  the  direct  line.  If  this  had  been  done 
there  would  have  been  some  argument  for  the  changes,  but 
they  only  eliminated  the  grades  from  the  Omaha  summit,  which 
it  took  three  miles  of  sixty  and  sixty-six  foot  grades  to  reach, 
and  east  of  the  Elkhorn  summit  which  was  an  eighty-foot 
grade,  so  by  the  change  and  addition  of  nine  miles  they  made 
no  reductions  in  the  original  grades  or  in  the  tonnage  hauled 
in  a  train  on  the  new  line  over  the  old  line  if  it  had  been  built. 

The  grades  at  Omaha  and  Elkhorn  have  been  eliminated 
since  1900,  and  the  new  management  is  adopting  the  old  Dey 
line  for  the  distance  it  saves  and  in  bringing  the  grade  to  the 
road's  maximum  of  forty-seven  feet  to  the  mile.  It  was  Mr. 
Dey's  intention  that  when  traffic  demanded  the  original  short 
line  grades  would  be  reduced  to  whatever  maximum  grade 
the  road  should  finally  adopt. 

After  a  long  contest  and.  many  reports  the  Government 
provided  that  the  change  should  only  be  made  if  the  Omaha 
and  Elkhorn  grades  were  eliminated,  the  first  by  a  line  run- 
ning south  from  Omaha  two  miles  in  the  Missouri  Valley  and 
cutting  through  the  Bluffs  to  Muddy  Creek,  giving  a  thirty- 
five   foot   maximum    grade,    and   the   Elkhorn,    by   additional 


64  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION  PACIFIC 

cutting  and  filling  without  changing  the  line,  but  this  was 
never  done.  The  company  paid  no  attention  to  the  decision 
but  built  on  the  changed  line  letting  the  grades  at  Omaha  and 
Elkhorn  stand,  and  the  Government  Commissioners  accepted 
the  road,  ignoring  the  conditions  of  the  change,  and  bonds 
were  issued  upon  it,  although  it  was  a  direct  violation  of  the 
Government  order. 

The  final  decision  in  favor  of  the  change,  and  the  ignoring 
of  Mr.  Dey's  recommendations  in  letting  the  construction  con- 
tracts, caused  Mr.  Dey  to  send  in  his  resignation.  He  stated 
in  his  letter  of  resignation  that  he  was  giving  up  "the  best 
position  in  his  profession  this  country  has  offered  to  any  man." 

During  the  building  of  the  road  the  question  of  bridging 
the  Missouri  River  was  under  discussion,  and  continuous  exam- 
inations of  the  river  in  sounding,  watching  currents,  etc.,  was 
had.  Three  points  were  finally  determined  upon  as  most  fea- 
sible. First,  Child's  Mill,  which  was  a  high  bridge,  the  shortest, 
and  reached  Muddy  Creek  with  thirty-five  foot  grade,  avoid- 
ing the  heavy  sixty-six  foot  grade  at  Omaha.  Second,  Tele- 
graph Pole,  right  where  there  was  some  rock  bottom,  this  to 
be  a  low  drawbridge,  and  third,  the  M.  &  M.  crossing  for  a 
high  bridge.  The  latter  was  decided  upon,  more  especially  to 
meet  the  views  of  Omaha,  and  for  aid  that  city  gave  the  com- 
pany. 

We  began  work  on  the  bridge  in  1868,  and  continued  it  in 
1869  and  1870,  but  the  company  found  it  impossible  to  con- 
tinue, as  they  had  no  funds  and  they  could  not  issue  any 
securities  under  their  charter  to  pay  for  the  work.  I  was  very 
anxious  the  bridge  should  be  built  to  utilize  the  thousand  acres 
of  land  I  had  bought  for  our  terminals  in  Iowa,  and  to  fix 
permanently  and  practically  the  terminus  in  Iowa.  The  com- 
pany proposed  to  me  to  organize  a  bridge  company,  to  interest 
the  Iowa  roads  terminating  at  the  Bluffs,  and  ask  authority 
from  the  Government  to  construct  the  bridge  and  issue  secur- 
ities upon  it,  the  Union  Pacific  agreeing  to  use  the  bridge  and 
make  its  terminals  and  connections  with  the  Iowa  roads  on  the 
Iowa  side. 

I  saw  all  the  Iowa  roads.  They  agreed  to  give  their  aid,  but 
made  the  condition  that  their  connection  with  the  Union  Pacifie 


ITS  RELATION  TO  COUNCIL  BLUFFS  65 

should  be  on  the  Iowa  side.  I  went  to  Washington,  presented 
the  bill,  passed  it  through  the  house  and  left  it  in  Senator  Har- 
lan's hands  to  pass  it  in  the  Senate.  This  was  very  quietly 
done,  but  Omaha  got  alarmed,  and  Governor  Saunders.,  who 
was  a  personal  friend  of  Senator  Harlan,  took  the  matter  up, 
and  I  think  went  to  Washington.  The  Omaha  people  interested 
themselves  in  stirring  up  opposition  in  the  Bluffs. 

A  public  meeting  was  held  at  the  corner  of  Broadway  and 
Pearl  Streets,  over  which  J.  W.  Crawford  presided.  I  was  very 
seriously  criticised  and  the  bridge  scheme  denounced,  although 
it  was  entirely  and  solely  in  the  interest  of  Council  Bluffs  and 
would  have  brought  the  terminus  and  business  of  the  Union 
Pacific  to  the  Bluffs,  as  they  had  entered  into  an  agreement 
with  the  Iowa  roads  to  that  effect. 

The  public  meeting  was  addressed  in  favor  of  the  bridge 
by  Messrs.  Pusey,  Officer  and  myself,  also  by  Caleb  Baldwin, 
and  was  opposed  by  Messrs.  James,  Larimer,  Montgomery  and 
others.  The  meeting  passed  resolutions  asking  our  Senators 
to  defeat  the  bridge  bill.  Harlan  acted  on  this  resolution  and 
defeated  the  bill  in  the  Senate,  and  Saunders  and  Omaha 
accomplished  their  work. 

The  Union  Pacific  Company  was  greatly  disgusted  and 
disappointed,  and  dropped  for  the  time  all  efforts  to  build  a 
bridge.  If  the  bill  had  passed  the  bridge  would  have  been 
built  in  the  interests  of  Council  Bluffs  and  the  Iowa  roads. 
The  Union  Pacific  later  on  applied  to  Congress,  which  passed 
a  bill  authorizing  the  Union  Pacific  to  build  a  bridge,  issue 
bonds  and  stock  upon  it  and  placed  it  entirely  in  their  con- 
trol, but  the  Union  Pacific  had  no  great  interest  in  coming 
to  Council  Bluffs  or  Iowa,  and  made  their  terminus  at  Omaha 
and  forced  the  Iowa  roads  over  the  bridge  until  1875,  when 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  decided  that  the  Union 
Pacific  should  be  operated  from  Council  Bluffs  westward  as  a 
continuous  line  for  all  purposes  of  communication,  travel  and 
transportation,  and  especially  ordered  them  to  start  all  through 
passenger  and  freight  trains  westward  from  the  Bluffs. 

This  came  too  late  to  cure  the  mischief  the  town  meeting 
had  accomplished,  as  the  Union  Pacific  had  its  interests  cen- 
tered in  Omaha,  and  its  offices,  and  the  Iowa  roads  had  made 


66  HOW  WE   BUILT   THE   UNION  PACIFIC 

their  contracts  and  gone  there  and  the  Bluffs  had  only  reaped 
the  benefit  of  its  terminal  that  the  growth  of  business  has 
forced  to  them,  whereas,  by  law,  by  economy  of  operation, 
and  by  the  ample  terminals  made  to  accommodate  it,  it  should 
have  been  the  actual  terminus,  and  should  have  received  full 
benefit  of  it,  not  only  from  traffic  of  the  Union  Pacific,  but  from 
the  traffic  and  interest  of  the  Iowa  roads. 

The  points  I  have  mentioned  are  the  principal  ones  in  the 
building  of  the  Union  Pacific  that  interest  Council  Bluffs. 
There  were  others,  but  my  article  is  already  too  long.  The 
building  of  the  Union  Pacific  was  of  incalculable  benefit  to 
the  Bluffs  and  Iowa.  General  Sherman  said  it  advanced  our 
country  one  hundred  years.  The  rapidity  of  building  was  a 
factor.  Forty  miles  of  track  was  laid  in  1865,  260  miles  in 
1866,  246  in  1867,  including  the  ascent  to  the  summit  of  the 
Black  Hills  at  Sherman,  8,255  feet  above  the  sea,  and  during 
1868  and  to  May,  1869,  555  miles,  all  exclusive  of  186  miles 
of  sidings  and  all  from  one  end,  a  task  never  before  or  since 
equalled. 


FORTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  DRIVING  OF  THE  LAST 

SPIKE  ON  THE  UNION  PACIFIC  AND  CENTRAL 

PACIFIC  RAILWAY. 


The  building  of  a  Pacific  steam  road  to  connect  the  streams 
flowing  into  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  was  advocated  as  early 
as  1819,  before  a  mile  of  railroad  was  built  in  any  part  of  the 
world.  It  took  practical  form  when  Asa  Whitney,  in  1845, 
in  petitioning  Congress  in  behalf  of  a  Pacific  railroad,  said: 
"You  will  see  that  it  will  change  the  whole  world."  Senator 
Thomas  H.  Benton  in  1849  pleaded  that  the  great  line  when 
built  should  "be  adorned  with  its  crowning  honor,  the  colossal 
statue  of  the  great  Columbus,  whose  design  it  accomplishes, 
hewn  from  the  granite  mass  of  a  peak  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
overlooking  the  road,  the  mountain  itself  the  pedestal,  and  the 
statue  a  part  of  the  mountain,  pointing  with  outstretched 
arm  to  the  western  horizon,  and  saying  to  the  flying  passenger, 
'There  is  the  East!  There  is  India!'"  Charles  Sumner  in 
1853  said :  ' '  The  railroad  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
traversing  a  whole  continent  and  binding  together  two  oceans, 
this  mighty  thoroughfare  when  completed  will  mark  an  epoch 
of  human  progress  second  only  to  that  of  our  Declaration  of 
Independence.  May  the  day  soon  come!"  And  it  did  come, 
and  all  the  prophecies  were  fulfilled  when  the  first  transcon- 
tinental line  was  completed  and  the  tracks  joined. at  Promon- 
tory Point,  Utah,  on  May  10,  1869,  just  forty  years  ago. 

This  ceremony  was  one  of  peace  and  harmony  between  the 
Union  Pacific,  coming  from  the  east,  and  the  Central  Pacific, 
coming  from  the  west.  For  a  year  or  more  there  had  been 
great  contention  and  rivalry  between  the  two  companies,  the 
Union  Pacific  endeavoring  to  reach  Humboldt  Wells,  on  the 
west  boundary  of  Utah,  and  the  Central  Pacific  rushing  to 
reach  Ogden,  Utah,  to  give  them  an  outlet  to  Salt  Lake  City. 

In  the  building  of  a  Pacific  steam  road  to  connect  the  two 
oceans  two  lines  were  graded  alongside  of  each  other  for  225 


68  HOW  WE  BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC 

miles  between  Ogden  and  Humboldt  Wells.  Climbing  Promon- 
tory Mountain,  they  were  not  a  stone's  throw  apart. 

When  both  companies  saw  that  neither  could  reach  its 
goal  they  came  together  and  we  made  an  agreement  to  join 
the  tracks  on  the  summit  of  Promontory  Mountain,  the  Union 
Pacific  selling  to  the  Central  Pacific  fifty-six  miles  of  its  road 
back  within  five  miles  of  Ogden  and  leasing  trackage  over 
that  five  miles  to  enable  the  Central  Pacific  to  reach  Ogden. 
These  five  miles  were  not  only  a  part  of  the  Union  Pacific,  but 
used  by  their  line  north  to  Idaho.  This  agreement  was  ratified 
by  Congress.  Each  road  built  to  the  summit  of  Promontory, 
leaving  a  gap  of  about  100  feet  of  rail  to  be  laid  when  the 
last  spike  was  driven.  The  chief  engineers  of  the  Union  and 
Central  Pacific  had  charge  of  the  ceremony  and  the  work, 
and  we  set  a  day  far  enough  ahead  so  that  trains  coming  from 
New  York  and  San  Francisco  would  have  ample  time  to  reach 
Promontory  in  time  to  take  part  in  the  ceremonies. 

On  the  morning  of  May  10,  1869,  Hon.  Leland  Stanford, 
Governor  of  California  and  President  of  the  Central  Pacific, 
accompanied  by  Messrs.  Huntington,  Hopkins,  Crocker  and 
trainloads  of  California's  distinguished  citizens,  arrived  from 
the  west.  During  the  forenoon  Vice  President  T.  C.  Durant 
and  Directors  John  E.  Duff  and  Sidney  Dillon  and  Consulting 
Engineer  Silas  A.  Seymour  of  the  Union  Pacific,  with  other 
prominent  men,  including  a  delegation  of  Mormons  from  Salt 
Lake  City,  came  in  on  a  train  from  the  east.  The  National 
Government  was  represented  by  a  detachment  of  "regulars" 
from  Fort  Douglass,  Utah,  accompanied  by  a  band,  and  600 
others,  including  Chinese,  Mexicans,  Indians,  half-breeds,  ne- 
groes and  laborers,  suggesting  an  air  of  cosmopolitanism,  all 
gathered  around  the  open  space  where  the  tracks  were  to  be 
joined.  The  Chinese  laid  the  rails  from  the  west  end,  and  the 
Irish  laborers  laid  them  from  the  east  end,  until  they  met  and 
joined. 

Telegraphic  wires  were  so  connected  that  each  blow  of  the 
descending  sledge  could  be  reported  instantly  to  all  parts  of 
the  United  States.  Corresponding  blows  were  struck  on  the 
bell  of  the  City  Hall  in  San  Francisco,  and  with  the  last  blow 
of  the  sledge  a  cannon  was  fired  at  Fort  Point.  General  Safford 


DRIVING   OF   THE    LAST   SPIKE  69 

presented  a  spike  of  gold,  silver  and  iron  as  the  offering  of 
the  Territory  of  Arizona.  Governor  Tuttle  of  Nevada  pre- 
sented a  spike  of  silver  from  his  state.  The  connecting  tie 
was  of  California  laurel,  and  California  presented  the  last  spike 
of  gold  in  behalf  of  that  state.  A  silver  sledge  had  also  been 
presented  for  the  occasion.  A  prayer  was  offered.  Governor 
Stanford  of  California  made  a  few  appropriate  remarks  on 
behalf  of  the  Central  Pacific  and  the  chief  engineer  responded 
for  the  Union  Pacific.  Then  the  telegraphic  inquiry  from  the 
Omaha  office,  from  which  the  circuit  was  to  be  started,  was 
answered  :  "To  everybody  :  Keep  quiet.  When  the  last  spike  is 
driven  at  Promontory  Point  we  will  say  'Done.'  Don't  break 
the  circuit,  but  watch  for  the  signals  of  the  blows  of  the  ham- 
mer. The  spike  will  soon  be  driven.  The  signal  will  be  three 
dots  for  the  commencement  of  the  blows. ' '  The  magnet  tapped 
one — two — three — then  paused — ' '  Done. ' '  The  spike  was  given 
its  first  blow  by  President  Stanford  and  Vice  President  Durant 
followed.  Neither  hit  the  spike  the  first  time,  but  hit  the 
rail,  and  were  greeted  by  the  lusty  cheers  of  the  onlookers, 
accompanied  by  the  screams  of  the  locomotives  and  the  music 
of  the  military  band.  Many  other  spikes  were  driven  on  the 
last  rail  by  some  of  the  distinguished  persons  present,  but  it 
was  seldom  that  they  first  hit  the  spike.  The  original  spike, 
after  being  tapped  by  the  officials  of  the  companies,  was  driven 
home  by  the  chief  engineers  of  the  two  roads.  Then  the  two 
trains  were  run  together,  the  two  locomotives  touching  at  the 
point  of  junction,  and  the  engineers  of  the  two  locomotives 
each  broke  a  bottle  of  champagne  on  the  other's  engine.  Then 
it  was  declared  that  the  connection  was  made  and  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  were  joined  together  never  to  be  parted. 

The  wires  in  every  direction  were  hot  with  congratulatory 
telegrams.  President  Grant  and  Vice  President  Colfax  were 
the  recipients  of  especially  felicitous  messages.  On  the  evening 
of  May  8th,  in  San  Francisco,  from  the  stages  of  the  theatres 
and  other  public  places,  notice  was  given  that  the  two  roads 
had  met  and  were  to  be  wedded  on  the  morrow.  The  celebra- 
tion there  began  at  once  and  practically  lasted  through  the 
10th.  The  booming  of  cannons  and  the  ringing  of  bells  were 
united  with  other  species  of  noise,  making  of  which  jubilant 


70  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

humanity  finds  expression  for  its  feelings  on  such  an  occa- 
sion. The  buildings  in  the  city  were  gay  with  flags  and  bunt- 
ing. Business  was  suspended  and  the  longest  procession  that 
San  Francisco  had  ever  seen  attested  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
people.  At  night  the  city  was  brilliant  with  illuminations. 
Free  railway  trains  filled  Sacramento  with  an  unwonted  crowd, 
■and  the  din  of  cannon,  steam  whistles  and  bells  followed  the 
final  message. 

At  the  eastern  terminus  in  Omaha  the  firing  of  a  hundred 
guns  on  Capitol  hill,  more  bells  and  steam  whistles  and  a  grand 
procession  of  fire  companies,  civic  societies,  citizens  and  visit- 
ing delegations  echoed  the  sentiments  of  the  Californians.  In 
Chicago  a  procession  of  four  miles  in  length,  a  lavish  display 
of  decoration  in  the  city  and  on  the  vessels  in  the  river,  and 
an  address  by  Vice  President  Colfax  in  the  evening  were  the 
evidences  of  the  city's  feeling.  In  New  York,  by  order  of  the 
mayor,  a  salute  of  a  hundred  guns  announced  the  culmination 
of  the  great  undertaking.  In  Trinity  Church  the  te  deum  was 
chanted,  prayers  were  offered,  and  when  the  services  wtre 
over  the  chimes  rung  out  "Old  Hundred,"  the  "Ascension 
Carol"  and  national  airs.  The  ringing  of  bells  on  Independence 
Hall  and  the  fire  stations  in  Philadelphia  produced  an  unusual 
concourse  of  citizens  to  celebrate  the  national  event.  In  the 
other  large  cities  of  the  country  the  expressions  of  public 
gratification  were  hardly  less  hearty  and  demonstrative.  Bret 
Harte  was  inspired  to  write  the  celebrated  poem  of  "What 
the  Engines  Said."    The  first  verse  is: 

What  was  it  the  engines  said, 
Pilots  touching,   head  to  head, 
Facing  on  the  single  track, 
Half  a  world  behind  each  back? 
This  is  what  the  engines  said, 
Unreported  and   unread. 

Not  forgetting  my  old  commander,  General  W.  T.  Sher- 
man, who  had  been  such  an  aid  in  protecting  us  in  the  building 
of  the  road,  in  answer  to  our  telegram,  sent  this  despatch : 

"Washington,  May  11,  1869.— General  G.  M.  Dodge:  In 
common  with  millions,  I  sat  yesterday  and  heard   the  mystic 


M 


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s? 


MM 


DRIVING    OF   THE    LAST   SPIKE  71 

taps  of  the  telegraphic  battery  announce  the  nailing  of  the 
last  spike  in  the  great  Pacific  road.  Indeed,  am  I  its  friend? 
Yea.  Yet,  am  I  to  be  a  part  of  it,  for  as  early  as  1854  I  was 
Vice  President  of  the  effort  begun  in  San  Francisco  under  the 
contract  of  Robinson,  Seymour  &  Co.  As  soon  as  General 
Thomas  makes  certain  preliminary  inspections  in  his  new  com- 
mand on  the  Pacific  I  will  go  out,  and,  I  need  not  say,  will 
have  different  facilities  from  that  of  1846,  when  the  only,  way 
to  California  was  by  sailing  around  Cape  Horn,  taking  our 
ships  196  days.  All  honor  to  you,  to  Durant,  to  Jack  and  Dan 
Casement,  to  Reed,  and  the  thousands  of  brave  fellows  who 
have  wrought  out  this  glorious  problem,  spite  of  changes, 
storms  and  even  doubts  of  the  incredulous,  and  all  the  obstacles 
you  have  happily  surmounted. 

"W.  T.  SHERMAN,  General." 

After  the  ceremony  a  sumptuous  lunch  was  served  in  Pres- 
ident Stanford's  cars,  and  appropriate  speeches  were  made  by 
Governor  Stanford  and  others,  and  a  general  jollification  was 
enjoyed.  At  night  each  train  took  its  way  to  its  own  home, 
leaving  at  the  junction  point  only  the  engineers  and  the  work- 
men to  complete  the  work  ready  for  the  through  trains  that 
followed  in  a  day  or  two  after. 

The  one  thought  that  was  in  all  minds  was,  "What  of 
the  future?  What  could  a  railroad  earn  that  ran  almost  its 
entire  length  from  Nebraska  to  the  California  State  line 
through  a  country  uninhabited,  and,  at  that  date,  with  no 
developed  local  business  upon  its  whole  line." 

My  own  views  upon  that  question  I  expressed  in  my  re- 
port upon  the  completion  of  the  road  in  1869,  in  which  I  said : 

"Its  future  is  fraught  with  great  good.  It  will  develop 
a  waste,  will  bind  together  the  two  extremes  of  the  nation 
as  one,  will  stimulate  intercourse  and  trade,  and  bring  har- 
mony, prosperity  and  wealth  to  the  two  coasts.  A  proper  pol- 
icy, systematically  and  persistently  followed,  will  bring  to 
the  road  the  trade  of  the  two  oceans  and  will  give  it  all  the 
business  it  can  accommodate ;  while  the  local  trade  will  in- 
crease gradually  until  the  mining,  grazing  and  agricultural 
regions  through  which  it  passes  will  build  up  and  create  a 


HOW  WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC 


business  that  will  be  a  lasting  and  permanent  support  to  the 
company. ' ' 

As  soon  as  the  road  was  in  operation,  with  regular  trains, 
the  company  called  upon  me  to  make  an  estimate  of  the  earn- 
ings of  the  company  for  the  next  ten  years.  They  desired  that 
they  should  show  a  sum,  if  possible,  equal  to-  the  interest  upon 
all  the  company  bonds  and  provide  for  the  Government  sink- 
ing fund. 

This  was  a  problem  that  would  have  challenged  the  imag- 
ination of  the  greatest  optimist  of  the  time,  for  we  had  a  road 
1,086  miles  in  length,  with  few  settlements  upon  it,  and  the 
country  surrounding  it,  from  our  own  observations,  did  not 
promise  any  great  amount  of  railroad  traffic.  However,  by 
claiming  all  the  known  traffic  between  the  Atlantic  and  the 
Pacific,  and  all  the  trade  of  foreign  countries  seeking  Japan, 
China  and  Australia  by  this  route,  we  built  up  a  yearly  earn- 
ing of  $5,000  per  mile,  but  the  growth  of  the  country  even 
then  distanced  my  imagination  100  per  cent,  and  our  yearly 
earnings  in  ten  years  rose  to  $10,000  or  $12,000  per  mile.  When 
I  look  back  upon  the  growth  of  the  country  west  of  the  Mis- 
souri, now  supporting  five  transcontinental  lines,  with  all  the 
miles  of  lateral  roads  filling  the  intermediate  territory,  with 
the  traffic  on  the  Union  Pacific  today  demanding  a  double 
track  over  its  entire  length,  I  have  not  the  ability  to  even  guess 
what  the  future  has  in  store.  When  you  try  to  calculate  the 
business  that  will  be  created  by  the  Government's  conserva- 
tion of  the  country's  resources,  its  millions  spent  impounding 
the  great  streams  that  flow  east  an^l  west  from  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  the  minerals  hidden  in  every  range  and  foothill, 
the  agricultural  growth  from  dry  farming  and  irrigation,  and 
the  great  yearly  increase  in  population,  and  that  today  the 
country  is  comparatively  only  scratched.  As  it  develops  and 
grows  today,  in  ten  years  it  will  require  50,000  additional  miles 
of  railroad  to  transport  its  people  and  its  production. 

When  the  Union  Pacific  was  first  built,  over  90  per  cent 
of  its  traffic  was  through  business.  Now  that  figure  is  reversed 
and  90  per  cent  of  it  or  more  is  local,  and  this  is  the  case  of 
all  the  transcontinental  and  intermediate  lines.  There  is  an 
empire  building  up  west  of  the  Missouri  River  and  on  the 


DRIVING   OF   THE    LAST   SPIKE  73 

Pacific  Coast  from  Mexico  to  Behring  Strait.  Already  there  is 
a  development  that  has  outstripped  every  effort  to  meet  its 
demands  or  anticipate  its  necessities.  To  me,  who  traveled 
over  most  of  this  country  in  the  '50s  and  '60s,  when  its  inhab- 
itants were  mostly  Indians,  and  its  products  game  and  grass, 
its  growth  I  cannot  even  comprehend,  and  its  future  no  man 
can  safely  prophesy. 

It  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  have  lived  and  witnessed  the 
development  of  our  nation,  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Pacific. 
As  a  result  of  the  Civil  War  it  has  made  a  century's  growth 
in  fifty  years. 


WHAT  I  HAVE  KNOWN  OF  HARRIMAN. 


While  I  have  known  Mr.  Harriman  many  years,  I  have 
had  no  railroad  or  business  connection  with  him.  I  severed 
my  connection  with  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  when  it  went 
into  the  hands  of  the  receivers.  I  was  a  member  of  the  first 
reorganization  committee,  known  as  the  Brice  Committee,  but 
it  failed  to  accomplish  anything  from  its  inability  to  come  to 
any  understanding  with  the  Government  as  to  the  payment 
of  the  Government  debt. 

The  second  reorganization  committee,  known  as  the  Kuhn- 
Loeb  Committee,  in  1897  succeeded  in  reorganizing  the  Union 
Pacific,  and  Mr.  Harriman  took  an  active  part  in  the  road 
from  that  time  forward.  First  as  a  director,  and  after  rising 
to  the  presidency,  he  controlled,  not  only  that  property,  but 
from  1901,  the  Southern  Pacific. 

His  great  power  in  argument  and  ability  to  show  results 
and  his  management  of  these  roads,  brought  him  to  the  promi- 
nent notice  of  the  whole  country  and  the  support  of  its  great 
banking  and  financial  interests.  The  development  of  business 
along  the  Union  Pacific  made  them  believe  the  road  could  pay 
the  Government  debt,  principal  and  interest,  and  they  had  the 
n^rve  to  make  that  agreement  with  the  Government. 

I  remember  when  they  were  considering  with  the  Govern- 
ment the  payment  of  the  subsidy  debt  that  President  MeKinley 
sent  for  me  to  come  to  Washington,  and  while  discussing  the 
question  with  him,  I  asked  him  if  he  didn't  think  a  monument 
ought  to  be  raised  by  the  Government  to  the  men  who  built 
that  road  and  paid  the  Government  debt,  an  unheard  of  occur- 
rence at  that  time.  He  answered,  "Yes,"  but  said,  "Don't 
you  think,  General,  a  monument  should  also  be  raised  to  the 
President  who  made  them  do  it?" 

In  the  first  plans  of  the  reorganization  of  the  Union  Pa- 
cific, the  main  trunk  line  only  was  included,  but  it  was  soon 
discovered  that  the  branches,  especially  the  Oregon  Short  Line, 


7  6  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

were  as  important  to  the  success  of  the  company  as  the  main 
line,  and,  afterwards,  under  the  management  of  Mr.  Harri- 
man,  those  branches,  except  the  Colorado  &  Southern  Railway, 
were  made  a  part  of  the  system.  He  saw  later  on  that  it  was  a 
mistake  even  to  leave  out  this  branch. 

During  the  panic  of  1893  the  earnings  of  the  road  fell 
from  $45,000,000  to  $29,000,000 ;  the  net  earnings  from  $16,000,- 
000  to  $4,000,000,  but  at  the  time  of  the  reorganization,  the 
development  of  the  country  was  such,  and  the  growth  of  the 
business  along  the  road  was  so  great,  that  the  value  of  the 
property  grew  all  the  time  upon  Mr.  Harriman  and  his  asso- 
ciates. The  one  obstacle  in  the  way  of  completing  the  plan 
they  had  in  view  was  that  the  line  from  Ogden  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, known  as  the  Central  Pacific,  was  owned  and  operated 
by  the  Southern  Pacific,  then  controlled  by  Mr.  Collis  P.  Hunt- 
ington, who  absolutely  refused  to  sell  it. 

Upon  Mr.  Huntington's  death,  Mr.  Harriman  and  his  asso- 
ciates in  1901  formed  the  plan  of  buying  the  Central  Pacific 
from  Ogden  to  San  Francisco  as  its  original  charter  provided, 
and  his  success  in  purchasing  this  property  is  one  of  the  keys 
to  the  great  success  of  the  Union  Pacific  road.  To  accomplish 
this,  he  had  to  spend  a  hundred  or  more  millions  of  dollars  and 
buy  not  only  the  Central  Pacific  but  a  road  reaching  from  San 
Francisco  to  New  Orleans,  and  from  there  by  steamboat  to 
New  York.  This  was  not  only  a  bold  but  a  very  successful 
financial  operation. 

One  person  in  speaking  of  his  great  success  at  the  time 
of  the  purchase  of  this  property  and  the  combining  of  it  with 
the  Union  Pacific  and  other  property  that  had  been  obtained, 
says:  "Mr.  Harriman  may  journey  by  steamship  from  New 
York  to  New  Orleans,  thence  by  rail  to  San  Francisco,  across 
the  Pacific  Ocean  to  China,  and,  returning  by  another  route 
to  the  United  States,  may  go  to  Ogden  by  any  one  of  the  three 
rail  lines,  and  thence  to  Kansas  City  or  Omaha,  without  leav- 
ing the  deck  or  platform  of  a  carrier  which  he  controls,  and 
without  duplicating  any  part  of  his  journey." 

This  purchase  of  his  was  a  very  far  sighted,  and  in  my 
opinion,  a  master  stroke,  although  at  this  time,  the  Govern- 
ment is  trying  to  divorce  the  two  roads.    This  is  a  mistake. 


WHAT   I   HAVE   KNOWN    OF    HARRIMAN  77 

I  cannot  see,  myself,  how  a  railroad  running  from  San  Fran- 
cisco to  New  Orleans  is  in  any  way  competitive  with  a  railroad 
running  from  San  Francisco  and  Portland  to  Council  Bluffs. 

Mr.  Harriman's  heart  was  wholly  in  his  work.  His  efforts 
have  been  only  to  build  up,  not  to  tear  down,  and  there  are 
instances  within  this  year  where  he  has  gone  to  the  aid  of 
great  competitive  properties  on  the  principle  that  it  was  not 
good  policy  to  allow  any  great  enterprise  to  fail.  Though  it 
may  have  been  competitive  with  his  interests,  he  did  not  fail 
to  aid  it  with  his  advice,  money  and  credit,  which  I  think, 
shows  that  he  held  a  very  broad  view,  far  different  from  the 
attitude  most  people  take  toward  such  questions. 

After  Mr.  Harriman  had  obtained  the  Union  Pacific,  South- 
ern Pacific  and  all  its  laterals,  and  branches,  he  began  to  make 
a  study  of  them.  He  went  through  them  from  beginning  to 
end  and  as  the  business  of  the  roads  grew,  he  saw  what  the 
future  for  them  was,  and  he  told  me  that  he  spent  almost  as 
much  money  as  the  original  cost  of  the  road  in  bringing  the 
grades  of  the  Union  Pacific,  from  Ogden  to  Cheyenne,  down 
to  forty-seven  feet  maximum  (except  two  places),  and  from 
Cheyenne  to  Omaha  down  to  sixteen  feet,  and  in  shortening 
the  distance  some  thirty  miles. 

It  is  said  that  in  developing  this  and  the  Southern  Pacific 
roads  and  their  lateral  lines,  he  has  spent  over  $200,000,000, 
and  it  is  for  these  reasons  that  I  have  said  that  his  death  is 
the  greatest  loss  to  the  western  country. 

It  is  a  very  forunate  thing  that  he  has  built  up  and  organ- 
ized these  properties  so  completely  and  efficiently  that  it  will 
not  be  difficult  to  find  some  one  in  them  to  take  his  place  and 
carry  out  his  plans  which  contemplate  as  much  expenditure 
in  the  future  as  has  been  made  in  the  past. 

I  was  much  impressed  as  I  lately  came  over  the  Union 
Pacific,  by  what  these  improvements  have  meant  to  the  road. 
I  had  been  staying  for  two  months  in  the  mountains  where 
other  railroads  cross  them,  and  I  noticed  that  two  locomotives 
could  haul  from  fifteen  to  twenty  cars  only  up  their  steep 
grades,  while  on  the  mountain  division  of  the  Union  Pacific, 
a  single  locomotive  could  haul  from  thirty-five  to  forty-five 
cars,  and  from  Cheyenne  east  they  hauled  fifty  to  seventy-five 


7  8  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

loaded  cars.  This  shows  where  the  great  net  earnings  of  the 
Union  Pacific  come  from. 

Every  piece  of  property  that  Harriman  has  taken  an  active 
interest  in,  has  immediately  felt  his  influence  and  got  the  ben- 
efit of  his  judgment  in  its  operations  and  in  the  increase  of 
its  earnings.  He  had  a  great  faculty  for  details  in  these  matters 
and  seemed  to  know  intuitively  how  to  utilize,  to  the  best 
advantage,  the  forces  working  under  him. 

His  men  were  loyal  to  him  because  he  was  loyal  to  them. 
He  took  a  great  interest  in  them,  gave  them  full  authority  and 
what  is  necessary  for  success  in  railroad  management,  stood 
right  behind  them  and  was  not  afraid,  at  any  time,  to  take 
the  responsibility  of  any  of  their  acts.  This,  of  course,  was 
one  of  the  great  elements  of  his  success.  You  never  see  a 
person  along  his  line  of  roads  who  does  not  speak  well  of 
him,  from  the  top  down. 

I  have  seen  it  stated  lately  that  Mr.  Harriman  found,  on 
taking  charge  of  the  Union  Pacific,  "two  dirt  ballasted  streaks 
of  rust.  The  stations  along  the  mountain  grades  were  tumble 
down  shacks,  most  of  the  equipment  fit  only  for  the  scrap  pile. 
From  top  to  bottom,  the  Union  Pacific  suffered  from  bank- 
ruptcy, brought  on  by  political  and  financial  intrigue."  There 
is  no  truth  in  this  statement.  When  the  Union  Pacific  went 
into  the  receivers'  hands,  it  was  carried  there  by  a  floating 
debt  of  $18,000,000,  contracted  in  developing  the  property  and 
building  branches.  The  road  was  then  earning  some  $45,000,- 
000  gross,  and  $16,000,000  net,  yearly,  and  was  10,000  or  more 
miles  in  length.  The  demonetization  of  silver  destroyed,  for 
a  time,  the  mining  and  other  industries  along  the  Union  Pacific 
from  the  Missouri  River  to  California,  reducing  its  earnings  to 
$29,000,000  gross  per  year.  It  could  not  stand  this  great  de- 
crease and  carry  its  debt. 

During  the  time  it  was  in  the  receivers'  hands,  its  operat- 
ing organization  was  good  and  the  physical  condition  of  the 
road  Avas  equal  to  or  better  than  that  of  any  road  west  of 
the  Missouri  River,  while  no  additional  mileage  was  added 
to  it,  its  earnings  were  devoted  to  maintaining  the  property. 
As  soon  as  Mr.  Harriman  took  charge  of  the  road,  it,  like  all 
other  railroads  in  the  United  States,  had  to  be  fitted  to  carry 


WHAT   I   HAVE    KNOWN   OP   HARRIMAN  79 

the  weight  of  the  modern  locomotives,  cars,  and  trains  put 
upon  it  to  handle  the  great  increase  of  traffic  from  1897  to  the 
present  time. 

Mr.  Harriman  saw  and  grasped  this  situation  and  not 
only  provided  for  this  great  traffic,  but  reduced  the  grades  of 
the  road,  shortened  the  distance,  and  made  possible  by  double 
tracking  it,  the  handling  of  its  increasing  traffic  for  many  years 
to  come. 

The  great  interests  that  Mr.  Harriman  controlled  and 
those  he  was  interested  in,  covers  the  entire  continent,  and 
included  not  only  the  transportation  but  many  industries, 
banks,  financial  interests,  etc.,  and  were  far  too  much  of  a 
burden  to  place  upon  one  man.  But  no  matter  how  much  we 
may  try  to  avoid  the  accumulation  of  such  duties,  it  was 
hard  for  him  and  will  be  for  anyone  who  takes  his  place,  to 
stop  the  accumulations  and  combinations,  for  all  the  laws  now, 
state  and  national,  force  consolidation  and  combinations,  while 
this  country  grows  in  every  direction,  the  controlling  interests 
decrease  in  number,  and  legislation  and  financial  interest  cause 
this  great  change. 

Under  a  fair  wind,  they  all  seem  to  prosper.  They  stood 
fairly  well  through  the  panic,  but  the  question  is,  how  will 
they  weather  any  long  and  steady  decrease  in  our  crops  and 
any  general  decline  of  our  greatly  diversified  business. 

Although  undersized  in  stature  and  frail  in  physical 
strength.  Mr.  Harriman  was  the  boldest  fighter  of  these  times, 
and  his  success  lay,  mainly,  in  the  fact  that  he  was  considered 
a  fair  fighter. 

He  had  two  sides  to  his  character.  One  the  public  saw; 
the  other,  those  who  worked  with  him  and  were  close  to  him 
saw.  He  had  a  kind  word  for  everyone  who  was  trying  to 
succeed.  He  was  especially  kind  to  those  who  were  in  his 
immediate  employ,  and  he  had  a  heart  that  went  out  to  all 
appeals  from  those  in  trouble.  He  was  devoted  to  his  family 
and  his  home. 

We  who  knew  him,  can  appreciate  the  West's  great  loss, 
but  if  he  had  to  go,  it  was  best  that  he  should  fall  at  the  zenith 
of  his  great  successes,  and  at  a  time  when  his  great  work  was 
moving  steadily  forward,  well  manned  and  well  in  hand. 


JOHN  N.  BALDWIN'S,  GENERAL  SOLICITOR  OF  THE 
UNION  PACIFIC  RAILWAY,  TRIBUTE  TO  GENERAL 
G.  M.  DODGE  ON  HIS  WORK  IN  BUILDING  THE 
UNION  PACIFIC  RAILWAY  AT  THE  MEETING  OF 
THE  SOCIETY  OF  THE  ARMY  OF  THE  TENNESSEE 
AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS,  IOWA,  1906. 


Mr.   Toastmaster,   Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 

Though  solemnized  by  the  ceaseless  mutations  of  time, 
this  is  an  occasion  well  calculated  to  awaken  the  buoyancy  and 
quicken  the  heart-beat  of  every  citizen  who  loves  his  country 
and  its  institutions. 

In  this  time  of  great  national  eminence,  with  happiness 
regnant  in  twenty  million  American  homes,  with  our  astral 
emblem  honored  and  respected  throughout  the  world,  with  the 
seat  of  peace  of  both  hemispheres  by  the  Potomac,  with  a 
nation  distinguished  for  its  commerce,  its  wealth,  its  Christi- 
anity and  its  enlightenment,  it  is  meet  that  we  should  pause 
in  our  onward  flight  to  acknowledge  with  full  hearts  our  love, 
our  reverence,  our  boundless  gratitude  and  obligation  to  and 
for  our  preserver  and  benefactor — the  Union  soldier. 

We  have  with  us  tonight  one  of  the  chief  actors  in  what 
history  truly  represents  as  the  greatest  tragedy  ever  played 
in  the  theatre  of  war.  He  saw  the  curtain  rise  on  Fort  Sumpter 
and  fall  on  Appomattox.  He  shared  with  his  comrades  in  arms 
the  fortunes  and  misfortunes  of  military  life,  and  like  them 
he  received  his  plaudits  and  his  wounds. 

I  have  the  honor  to  speak  of  our  distinguished  fellow 
townsman,  our  neighbor,  our  friend,  General  Grenville  M. 
Dodge. 

If  our  honored  friend  experiences  some  embarrassment  as 
he  listens  to  the  recital  of  his  deeds  and  achievements,  he  must 
remember  the  pleasure  it  affords  those  who  offer  their  tribute 
and  their  expressions  of  esteem,  and  also  remember  that  if 
the  struggles  and  triumphs  of  the  strong  and  successful  are 

—81— 


82  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

never  to  be  recounted,  the  inspiration  of  worthy  action  might 
be  lost  and  many  tender  chords  remain  untouched. 

''Let  us,  then,  be  what  we  are  and  speak  what  we  think, 
and  in  all  things  keep  ourselves  loyal  to  the  truth  and  the 
sacred  professions  of  friendship." 

I  believe  that  it  will  be  both  profitable  and  pleasurable 
for  us  to  stop  a  moment  during  these  tempestuous,  tumultuous, 
business-expanding,  wealth-getting  and  property-developing 
times,  and  seriously  contemplate  the  rugged  and  lasting  qual- 
ities of  such  a  man  as  General  Dodge,  and  also  with  fitting 
ceremony  and  circumstance,  in  the  presence  of  the  highest 
in  the  community,  give  to  him  his  true  meed  and  merit. 

The  Army  of  the  Tennessee  is  conspicuous  in  American 
history.  Around  it  is  woven  the  story  of  the  Civil  War.  It 
participated  in  more  than  forty  engagements,  among  them 
being  a  number  of  the  greatest  battles  of  that  war.  It  not 
only  participated,  it  was  in  the  thick  of  the  conflict,  and  was 
often  the  medium  through  which  defeat  was  turned  into  vic- 
tory. More  than  once  the  fate  of  the  Union  depended  upon 
its  prowess  and  soldierly  valor.  It  was  so  at  Shiloh,  Vicksburg, 
Corinth.  Atlanta,  and  in  fact,  nearly  all  the  great  battlefields 
of  the  war.  As  General  Grant,  speaking  of  Vicksburg,  says 
in  his  personal  memoirs,  "It  looks  now  as  if  Providence  di- 
rected the  course  of  the  campaign,  while  the  Army  of  Ten- 
nessee  executed  the  decree." 

The  name  of  General  Dodge  will  forever  be  associated 
with  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  its  great  soldier  in  time  of 
war  and  its  great  citizen  in  time  of  peace.  He  was  one  of  its 
best  and  honored  commanders,  a  fit  companion  of  Sherman, 
McPherson  and  Logan.  In  the  personal  memoirs  of  Grant, 
Sherman  and  Sheridan  are  found  the  highest  testimonials  of 
these  great  soldiers  to  the  valor,  courage,  skill  and  bravery 
of  General  Dodge.  Commendation  from  such  a  source  is  a 
priceless  legacy. 

I  desire  to  speak  tonight  of  the  achievements  and  triumphs 
of  General  Dodge  in  the  ranks  of  private  citizenship.  While 
he  has  illuminated  the  pages  of  American  history  with  his 
deeds  of  valor,  he  has  also  made  his  impress  as  a  private  citi- 
zen in  the  sphere  of  industry. 


o    * 

£  3 


Ph 


<J*     VI 


A  TRIBUTE   TO   GENERAL  DODGE  83 

It  is  not  the  rule  that  men  ascend  to  eminence  by  leaps 
and  bounds.  It  is  by  steady  tread  that  we  move  up  the  rough 
and  rugged  path  to  success.  This  is  an  age  of  concrete  thought 
and  those  of  whatever  vocation  who  rise  above  mediocrity 
and  reach  eminence  and  distinction  are  they  who  subject  their 
lives  to  the  crucible  of  hard  intellectual  and  physical  endeavor. 

"We  often  and  wisely  repeat  the  truism  that  man  is  the 
architect  of  his  own  fortune.  Individuality  is  the  despot,  des- 
tiny the  subject. 

I  do  not  subscribe  to  the  doctrine  that  all  men  are  created 
equal  or  that  at  the  threshold  of  life's  contest  all  are  equally 
armed,  but  among  those  who  are  thus  favored  some  fail  while 
others  succeed,  thus  establishing  the  fact  that  success  is  a 
reward  not  a  legacy. 

A  man  rising  to  eminence  acquires  that  estate  at  tre- 
mendous cost.  Many  they  are  who  crave  it  but  few  they  are 
who  are  willing  to  strive  for  it  in  the  only  way  it  can  be 
obtained,  that  is,  by  hard  and  constant  endeavor.  And  it  is 
not  true  that  those  who  stand  on  the  pedestal  of  fame  are,  as 
a  rule,  those  who  have  crossed  life's  chasms  on  the  bridge  of 
sacrifice. 

General  Dodge's  position  today  in  the  business  and  trans- 
portation world  represents  an  investment  of  years  of  hard 
labor  and  useful  life.  Without  heraldry  of  birth,  without 
moneyed  or  influential  friends,  but  with  labor,  diligence,  in- 
tegrity and  faith  in  himself,  he  has  risen  steadily  and  marked 
a  path  across  the  railroad  world.  Studious,  thoughtful  and 
indefatigable.  He  has  had  much  to  encounter  and  much  to 
conquer.  He  never  despised  an  opponent  and  never  became 
careless,  and  he  never  feared  one  and  therefore  never  became 
unnerved.  He  always  had  faith.  He  may  have  thought  some- 
times in  the  struggle  that  right  would  be  defeated  but  he 
never  believed  for  a  moment  that  wrong  would  triumph.  Fidel- 
ity was  his  sovereign,  loyalty  his  guide,  and  devotion  his  ruler. 
He  bivouacked  at  his  post  of  duty  and  absolutely  only  sought 
relief  and  solace  in  increased  opportunity. 

He  is  the  very  incarnation  of  resoluteness  and  determina- 
tion. It  is  because  he  saw  events  and  their  causes,  strove  to 
obviate  consequences,  studied  to  ascertain  contingencies,  and 


84  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

because  of  caution  and  foresight,  that  he  became  distinguished 
in  this  realm  of  action,  reaching  a  point  where  he  had  no 
superiors. 

The  Pacific  Railways  were  the  great  constructive  forces 
in  the  development  of  the  country  west  of  the  Missouri  River, 
and  of  these  the  Union  Pacific  was  the  pioneer  and  the  first  to 
lead  the  march  of  civilization  into  the  wilderness.  It  was  not 
conceived  for  private  ends  nor  born  of  the  spirit  of  commer- 
cialism, but  was  created  to  preserve  a  republic  and  projected 
by  the  impulse  of  improvement.  It  is  the  only  railroad  in  the 
United  States  that  was  constructed  under  Federal  muskets 
and  protected  by  Federal  troops,  and  of  which  it  was  said 
by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  that  the  people 
of  this  country  would  have  sanctioned  the  action  of  Congress 
in  its  creation  if  it  had  departed  from  the  traditional  policy  of 
the  country  regarding  work  of  internal  improvement  and 
charged  the  Government  itself  with  the  direction  and  execution 
of  the  enterprise. 

Its  construction  began  on  the  second  day  of  December, 
1863,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Missouri  River  in  the  City  of 
Omaha.  May  10,  1869,  on  Promontory  Point,  Utah,  with  simple 
but  impressive  ceremonies  the  last  spike  was  driven,  fastening 
the  connecting  rail  between  the  Central  and  Union  Pacific 
Railways,  completing  an  iron  highway  between  the  two  oceans 
and  consummating  one  of  the  greatest  achivements  of  the  age. 

President  Lincoln,  fully  appreciating  the  genius  and  in- 
domitable will  of  General  Dodge,  immediately  after  the  war 
called  him  to  the  task  of  construction  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad.  He  turned  his  face,  recently  bathed  in  the  smoke 
of  musketry,  towards  the  "Wilderness,"  the  "Rockies,"  and 
the  "Great  American  Desert,"  and  he  surveyed  and  super- 
vised the  construction  of  that  road,  then  a  "military  neces- 
sity," now  one  of  the  great  systems  of  railways  which  move 
the  commerce  of  the  world.  He  had  no  maps  or  charts  to 
afford  him  information  of  the  topography  of  the  country.  The 
territory  traversed  was  designated  in  text  books  as  a  wilder- 
ness designated  by  nature  to  be  the  eternal  habitation  of  the 
savage  and  the  buffalo. 


A   TRIBUTE   TO   GENERAL  DODGE  85 

Limited  by  law  to  a  maximum  gradient  of  116  feet  to  the 
mile,  not  compensated  for  curvature,  he  held  it  down  to  ninety 
feet  to  the  mile.  Pressed  for  time,  Congress  impatient,  the 
people  demanding  an  early  completion,  he  had  to  contend 
with  hostile  Indians,  inadequate  funds,  lack  of  transportation 
facilities,  high  priced  labor,  and  numerous  other  obstacles,  but 
in  spite  of  all  he  pushed  his  line  across  the  continent,  consum- 
mating a  feat  in  railway  engineering  unequalled  in  the  history 
of  American  railway  construction. 

To  emphasize  this  great  achievement,  I  speak  authorita- 
tively, officially,  and  with  full  knowledge  of  the  facts,  when 
I  say  that  the  present  management  of  the  Union  Pacific,  for 
the  express  purpose  of  shortening  the  line  between  Council 
Bluffs  and  Ogden,  and  bettering  it,  if  that  were  possible,  had 
surveys  and  revisions  made,  and  expended  millions  of  dollars 
in  eliminating  gradients,  curvatures  and  tunneling  mountains, 
with  no  limit  as  to  time  or  means,  with  full  knowledge  of 
the  topography  of  the  country,  with  all  modern  appliances, 
with  the  services  of  a  corps  of  the  ablest  engineers,  yet  it  only 
succeeded  in  reducing  the  distance  less  than  forty  miles.  And 
this  reduction  in  mileage  was  due  largely,  in  fact  almost  en- 
tirely, to  changes  in  gradients  and  curvatures,  which  were 
rendered  impossible  to  General  Dodge  by  reason  of  lack  of 
funds. 

To  General  Dodge  these  were  years  tense  with  their  stress 
and  strain,  heavy  with  unremitting  toil,  thrilling  in  danger, 
but  he  still  pushed  ever  forward  and  onward  with  the  con- 
fidence of  a  conqueror.  He  was  a  man  of  judgment  and  com- 
mon sense,  who  spared  nothing  and  wanted  everything.  A  man 
who  believed  in  action  and  knew  the  value  of  every  moment  of 
time.  And  above  all,  my  friends,  actuated  by  the  impulse  to 
better  his  country,  himself  and  his  descendents,  he  toiled  with 
those  who  overcame  this  wilderness  and  converted  this  great 
"American  Desert"  into  a  "Garden  of  Benefits." 

And  to  you,  remaining  members  of  the  Army  of  the  Ten- 
nessee, now  in  the  twilight  of  life,  I  offer  the  sentiment  which 
pervaded  the  soul  of  the  Cumaean  Sibyl,  when  she  presented 
her  books  to  Tarquinius  Priscus,  "As  you  grow  fewer  in  num- 
bers, you  become  dearer  to  our  hearts." 


SPEECH  OF  G.  M.  DODGE  IN  CONGRESS,  MARCH  25,  1868, 
ON  THE  UNION  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Mr.  Speaker:  As  there  appears  to  be  some  misapprehen- 
sion as  to  the  true  status  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  and  its 
branches,  all  I  desire  to  do  is  to  set  forth  the  facts  in  relation 
to  that  enterprise.  I  have  no  defense  of  the  company  to  make. 
I  leave  that  to  the  country  and  this  House ;  but,  sir,  I  believe 
I  know  as  well  as  any  man  can  what  that  company  has  done 
and  what  its  intentions  are.  I  will  notice  briefly  a  few  points 
of  the  gentleman  from  Wisconsin.  I  believe  that  he  does  not 
desire  to  misrepresent  that  great  enterprise,  and  I  therefore, 
desire  to  correct  a  few  statements  that  bear  directly  upon  the 
subject  before  the  House.  The  gentleman  says  Government 
has  given  absolute  control  to  parties  managing  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad.  Does  he  not  know  that  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  has  to  build  its  road  under  the  supervision  of  three 
Government  Commissioners,  who  examine  and  criticise  every 
mile  of  road  built  before  it  is  accepted  by  the  Government, 
and  that  they,  under  oath,  certify  the  road  is  a  first-class 
American  road  before  one  dollar  or  one  cent  can  be  obtained 
from  Government  ?  And  this  is  not  all ;  every  act  of  the  Board 
of  Directors  and  of  the  company  is  criticised  and  scrutinized 
by  five  Government  directors,  appointed  by  the  President,  and 
forming  one-fourth  of  the  Board  of  Directors.  One  of  these 
Government  directors  has  a  position  on  each  one  of  the  com- 
mittees, and  nothing  can  be  done  in  or  out  of  the  board  but 
what  they  have  full  cognizance  of.  No  other  of  the  roads  receiv- 
ing Government  aid  has  any  such  board  or  any  such  supervi- 
vision,  and  these  directors  have  full  knowledge  of  the  rates  of 
freight,  the  necessity  for  these  rates,  etc. 

The  gentleman  says  it  is  a  work  that  over  sixty  millions 
of  the  people's  money  is  to  be  invested  in,  whereas  the  law 
prohibits  the  loan  of  over  fifty  millions  of  credit  or  bonds 
to  the  main  line,  and  so  far  not  a  cent  of  the  people's  money 

—87—     . 


88  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

has  been  put  into  the  enterprise,  the  company  having  fully 
paid  their  interest  on  bonds ;  and  if  the  money  saved  to  Gov- 
ernment in  the  transportation  of  Government  freight,  mails, 
troops,  etc.,  should  be  made  a  sinking  fund  it  would  pay  off 
the  entire  debt  or  entire  amount  of  bonds  within  thirty  years. 
In  another  place  he  says : 

"If  we  see  fit  to  sacrifice  posterity  to  this  giant  monopoly, 
that  they  will  have  $100,000,000  of  the  people's  money  in  their 
hands;    that  they   (the  company)   will  defy  any  legislation." 

Now,  sir,  I  do  not  understand  where  the  gentleman  gets 
$50,000,000  on  the  main  road  under  any  circumstances.  The 
his  $100,000,000,  as  I  have  shown  the  company  can  only  obtain 
amount  really  granted  to  the  company  is  as  follows : 

For  534  miles  at  $16,000  per  mile $  8,544,000 

For  300  miles  at  $48,000  per  mile,  namely,  150  miles 
of  mountain  work  from  Cheyenne  west,  and  150 
miles  of  mountain  work  from  near  Sacramento 

east,  which  equals 14,400,000 

For  898  miles  crossing  the  main  divide  of  the  conti- 
nent, the  "Wasatch,  Promontory,  Laone,  Taone, 
and  Humboldt  ranges  of  mountains,  at  $32,000 
per  mile,  amounting  to 28,736,000 

Making   a    total    amount    of   bonds   for    the    main 

through  line  of .$51,680,000 

If  the  company  received  pay  on  the  full  length  of  line  that 
they  will  have  to  build  to  complete  the  road  from  the  Missouri 
River  to  Sacramento ;  but  as,  under  the  law,  they  obtain  only 
$50,000,000  for  1,832  miles  of  road,  counting  the  distance  to 
San  Francisco,  they  get  an  average  of  a  little  over  $27,000 
per  mile ;  that  the  Government  loans  its  credit  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  an  all-rail  communication  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific  through  a  country,  over  mountains  and  plains,  that 
no  private  enterprise  would  for  one  moment  invest  one  cent 
without  Government  aid.  If  this  road  is  to  be  the  great  thor- 
oughfare that  the  gentleman  says  it  will  be,  then  the  Govern- 
ment freight  that  will  alone  go  over  it  will  more  than  pay 
their  interest  on  the  loan. 


GENERAL  DODGE'S  SPEECH  IN  CONGRESS       89 

And  now,  sir,  the  gentleman  says  Government  has  fur- 
nished every  dollar  to  complete  this  road — in  other  words,  that 
not  one  cent  of  money  has  been  put  into  the  enterprise  outside 
of  the  Government — and  I  deny  in  toto  the  statement  of  the 
gentleman.  I  say,  up  to  the  present  time,  that  that  company 
has  furnished  and  spent  more  money  in  building  the  road 
than  the  Government  has  loaned ;  and  according  to  the  gentle- 
man's  statement  they  have  only  built  as  yet  the  easiest  portion 
of  the  road;  he  says  500  miles  of  the  built  portion  is  a  dead 
level,  and  assumes  the  contract  to  commence  at  Omaha.  This 
is  not  the  fact.  It  commences  247  miles  west  of  Omaha ;  there- 
fore, all  his  assertions  and  assumptions  fall  to  the  ground, 
being  based  upon  false  premises.  When  you  compare  the  rates 
of  this  road  with  other  roads  you  will  not  see  so  vast  a  differ- 
ence as  is  endeavored  to  be  shown. 

The  Union  Pacific  Railroad  charge  about  seven  mills  per 
100  pounds  of  freight  per  mile.  The  Great  Eastern  routes, 
competing  for  freight  between  the  great  cities  of  the  East 
and  the  great  "West,  charge  from  two  and  a  half  to  four  mills 
per  100  pounds  per  mile,  they  having  all  the  advantages  of 
civilization,  concentration,  transportation,  the  cheapness  of 
material,  fuel,  repairs,  etc. ;  while  the  western  roads — the 
roads  east  of  the  Missouri  Eiver — charge  four  and  five  mills 
on  100  pounds  per  mile.  Many  of  the  local  southern  railroads 
charge  four,  five,  six,  and  as  high  as  seven  mills  per  100 
pounds  of  freight  per  mile.  As  to  passenger  fare,  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  is  now  charging  10  cents  per  mile; 
the  Northwestern  Railroad  Company  4  cents  per  mile;  the 
Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pacific  Railroad  Company  3%  cents 
per  mile;  the  Richmond,  Danville  and  Piedmont  Railroad 
Company  6  cents  per  mile ;  and  these  roads  are  all  in  a  heavily 
settled  country,  with  heavy  local  business,  while  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  runs  500  miles  into  a  wilderness,  without  com- 
paratively any  local  business,  nearly  all  their  freight  and  travel 
going  but  one  way. 

Now,  sir,  the  past  year  coal  for  fuel  has  cost  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  from  $28  to  $42  per  ton,  delivered 
at  places  for  use.  It  has  had  to  be  obtained  in  Illinois,  Missouri 
and  Iowa,  and  has  had  to  be  transported  from  500  to  1,000 


90  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC 


miles  before  the  company  could  use  it.  Again,  wood,  at  first 
cost,  has  been  $6  to  $11  per  cord,  and  when  laid  down  at  the 
points  for  use  averaged  about  $18  to  $20  per  cord.  Labor  and 
living  of  all  kinds  on  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  and  branches 
are  one-third  more  than  on  eastern  roads.  Material  for  repairs 
of  road,  cars,  running  stock,  building  material,  and  all  other 
things  pertaining  to  the  keeping  up  and  furnishing  the  road, 
have  to  be  transported  from  the  East.  And  the  gentleman 
asks  this  House  to  burden  us  with  rates  and  fares  that  he 
knows  the  road  could  not  earn  its  running  expenses  under. 

As  soon  as  the  road  reaches  the  coal  fields  100  miles  west 
of  the  track,  then  the  companies  propose  to  reduce  the  rates 
and  fare  themselves ;  they  have  already  reduced  them  some- 
what ;  and  so  far  as  these  railroad  companies  being  a  grinding 
monopoly  it  is  far  from  the  facts  in  the  case,  and  is  not  sub- 
stantiated by  any  proofs  whatever.  The  gentleman,  it  seems 
to  me,  takes  a  very  singular  way  to  protect  the  Government. 
He  charges  that  the  bonds  will  never  be  paid;  that  our  rates 
are  equal  to  old  rates  by  wagons  and  stage,  and  he  comes  in 
here  with  a  proposition  that,  if  adopted,  would  prevent  these 
companies  from  earning  sufficient  money  to  even  pay  the  in- 
terest on  their  bonds.  It  is  the  first  time  that  I  ever  saw  the 
mortgagee  come  in  and  endeavor  to  injure  the  value  of  the 
property  of  the  mortgagor,  and  if  possible  put  the  property 
on  which  he  holds  a  mortgage  in  a  condition  that  they  cannot 
only  pay  the  mortgage,  but  not  even  the  interest  on  the  mort- 
gage. 

NowT,  Mr.  Speaker,  as  to  the  rates  as  compared  with  for- 
mer rates  as  paid  by  the  Government  for  transportation  of 
its  freight.  The  average  price  paid  by  the  Government  for 
1865,  1866  and  1867,  inclusive,  on  Route  No.  2,  from  Leaven- 
Avorth  west,  was  $1.57  per  100  pounds  per  100  miles,  or  1% 
cents  per  mile  per  100  pounds,  more  than  double  the  rates  upon 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  and  branches ;  and  in  the  last  year 
the  Government  has  saved  by  transporting  its  freight  on  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad,  eastern  division,  over  what  it  would 
have  had  to  pay  if  transported  by  wagon  trains  over  an  aver- 
age transportation  of  only  104  miles  of  railroad,  $335,138; 
or,  if  that  road  had  been  built  300  miles  west,  it  would  have 


GENERAL  DODGE'S  SPEECH  IN  CONGRESS  91 

saved  by  this  "great  monopoly,"  with  its  "exorbitant  rates 
and  tariffs,"  over  $1,000,000.  And  the  statement  made  by  the 
Quartermaster-General  of  the  rates  of  freight  over  the  plains, 
over  Route  No.  1,  the  Great  Platte  Valley  route,  for  the  last 
six  years,  is  as  follows : 

' '  Quartermaster-General 's   Office, 

"Washington,  D.  ft,  March  24,  1868. 

"Hon.  G.  M.  Dodge,  M.  ft, 
"Washington,  D.  C. 

"Sir:  In  reply  to  your  communication  of  the  20th  in- 
stant to  this  office  requesting  information  as  to  the  rates  paid 
for  each  year  for  the  last  five  years  and  the  total  number  of 
pounds  of  stores  transported  and  total  cost  for  such  transpor- 
tation on  Route  No.  1  for  1866  and  1867,  I  have  the  honor  to 
state  that  the  rates  of  transportation  per  100  pounds  per  100 
miles  on  Route  No.  1  for  the  last  five  years,  including  the 
contract  rates  for  the  present  year,  are  as  follows : 

"1864.  April,  $2.25;  May,  $2.25  ;  June,  $2.25  ;  July,  $2.25; 
August,  $2.25;    September,  $2.25. 

"1865.  April,  $2.26;  May,  $2.26;  June,  $2.26;  July,  $2.26; 
August,  $2.26;    September,  $2.26. 

"1866.  April,  $1.45;  May,  $1.45  ;  June,  $1.45  ;  July,  $1.45; 
August,  $1.45;    September,  $1.45. 

"1867-68.  April,  $1.64;  May,  $1.64;  June,  $1.64;  July, 
$1.64;  August,  $1.64;  September,  $1.99 ;  October,  $1.99 ;  No- 
vember, $1.99;  December,  $1.99;  January,  $2.50;  February, 
$2.50;    March,  $2.50. 

"1868-69.  April,  $1.90;  May,  $1.75;  June,  $1.60;  July, 
$1.60;  August,  $1.60;  September,  $1.75 ;  October,  $1.75 ;  No- 
vember, $1.90;  December,  $2.00;  January,  $2.50;  February, 
$2.50;    March,  $3.00. 

"This  office  is  unable  at  present  to  furnish  the  number  of 
pounds  of  stores  transported  over  Route  No.  1  for  the  years 
1866  and  1867,  and  the  cost  of  such  transportation  for  that 
time ;  but  the  information  desired  on  this  point  has  been  this 
day  called  for  from  the  chief  quartermaster  military  division 


92  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC 

of  the  Missouri,  which,  as  soon  as  received,  will  be  forwarded 
to  you,    Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"D.  H.  RUCKER, 

"Acting  Quartermaster-General,  Brevet  Major-General  United 
States  Army." 

The  average  is  $2  per  100  pounds  per  100  miles,  or  2  cents 
per  mile,  being  1  cent  and  3  mills  above  above  the  rates  of 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  The  Quartermaster-General  is  now 
unable  to  give  me  the  precise  facts  as  to  the  saving  in  rates, 
but  we  can  figure  for  ourselves.  The  Government  transporta- 
tion over  the  road  last  year  was  about  20,000,000  pounds  of 
freight,  and  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  transported  it,  on  an 
average,  400  miles;  showing  a  saving  to  the  Government  on 
its  freight  alone,  at  the  average  price  of  the  last  six  years, 
of  about  $1,040,000.  If  we  take  the  price  that  the  contracts 
are  let  for  this  year  and  apply  it  to  the  amount  of  freight  that 
will  be  transported  over  from  five  to  800  miles  of  line,  the 
saving  will  reach  nearly  $2,000,000  on  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road, and  nearly  $1,000,000  on  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad, 
eastern  division. 

And  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  what  are  the  facts  in  relation  to 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad?  This  road  was  projected  some 
fourteen  years  ago.  The  first  examination  as  to  its  feasibility 
was  made  by  private  enterprise  and  private  capital,  and  a 
connection  with  it,  dating  back  to  its  first  inception,  renders 
me  able  to  state  some  of  the  difficulties  under  which  it  has 
labored.  The  examination  made  by  me  thereon  and  reported 
to  the  capitalists  of  the  United  States  showed  that  at  that 
day  or  this  it  would  be  impossible  to  build  that  road  upon 
private  capital  and  credit  alone.  The  country  demanding  the 
railroad,  the  Republican  party,  in  its  far-seeing  and  liberal 
policy,  seeing  the  necessity  of  this  railroad,  indorsed  it,  made 
it  a  part  of  their  platform,  and  breathed  life  into  it  #by  the 
bill  passed  in  1862.  But  even  then,  with  that  law  and  that 
grant,  it  was  found  impossible  to  raise  the  funds  to  push  it 
forward  or  even  to  build  a  mile  of  the  road.  The  Congress 
seeing  this  amended  the  Act  in  1864,  and  after  the  passage  of 


GENERAL  DODGE'S  SPEECH  IN  CONGRESS       93 

that  Act  this  great  monopoly,  this  great  swindle,  could  not 
obtain  the  means  for  one  year  to  start  the  work. 

A  few  men  took  hold  of  the  enterprise,  threw  their  for- 
tunes and  their  energies  into  it,  and  the  capitalists  of  the 
country  looked  upon  it  as  so  foolish  an  act  on  -their  part 
that  they  were  actually  shunned  as  prospective  bankrupts; 
their  paper  would  not  be  taken  except  upon  first  class  collateral 
securities,  and  within  one  year  the  enterprise  came  near  fail- 
ing for  want  of  financial  support.  But  the  energy  and  deter- 
mination displayed  by  that  company;  the  unheard  of  ability 
displayed  in  pushing  forward  the  work ;  the  unexpected  devel- 
opment of  that  country  that  the  enterprise  caused,  called  the 
attention  of  the  world  to  it,  and  now,  today,  the  men  who 
would  not  one  year  ago  have  put  a  dollar  into  it  are  denounc- 
ing it  as  a  great  monopoly,  and  trying  to  cripple  it  by  unjust 
and  unequal  legislation.  If  it  is  a  success,  and  any  money  is 
made  out  of  it,  it  will  be  simply  and  merely  from  the  fact  that 
a  few  men  had  the  nerve  and  the  foresight  to  throw  their  all 
into  the  scale,  and  "sink  or  swim"  with  the  enterprise.  And, 
Mr.  Speaker,  to  reach  the  success  they  have  today,  no  person 
can,  for  one  moment,  know  or  see  the  obstructions,  prejudice, 
and  obstacles  those  companies  have  had  to  meet  and  over- 
come. The  first  500  miles  of  road  were  built  without  an  east- 
ern connection;  they  had  to  start  hundreds  of  miles  away 
from  any  railroad  connection,  in  a  country  entirely  destitute 
of  the  proper  means  or  material  for  building  a  road;  paying 
enormous  prices  for  labor  and  material;  transporting  the 
superstructure  and  equipment  by  water  at  from  33  to  50  per 
cent  more  than  it  would  cost  to  build  the  same  length  of  road 
in  a  country  affording  railroad  facilities.  The  iron  laid  down 
cost  $125  a  ton,  equipment  and  everything  else  pertaining  to 
the  road  that  came  from  the  East  costing  in  the  same  propor- 
tion. 

The  first  year  the  company,  under  these  circumstances, 
built  about  forty  miles,  the  next  260,  and  the  next  250  miles, 
but  with  a  lavish  expenditure  of  money  that  astonished  the 
world.  Who,  in  1864,  could  have  been  made  to  believe  that 
this  company  would  have  accomplished  what  it  has?  What 
class  of  men  except  those  who  had  this  enterprise  at  heart 


94  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION  PACIFIC 

would  have  paid  33  1-3  per  cent  more  for  building  the  road 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  distance  when,  if  they 
had  carried  out  only  the  true  letter  of  the  law,  they  could 
have  saved  that  amount  and  put  it  in  their  pockets?  Have 
they  had  at  interest  themselves  more  than  the  country?  I  hold 
not,  for  I  know  that  their  orders  have  been  to  give  them  the 
most  miles  of  road  in  the  least  possible  time,  no  matter  what 
it  cost.  And  in  their  contract  they  have  provided  $7,500  per 
mile  for  the  equipment  of  the  road,  a  sum  far  beyond  any  ever 
before  provided  for  a  new  road  under  similar  circumstances; 
and  when  built  and  equipped  this  sum  will  give  it  the  best 
machinery,  the  best  shops,  and  the  most  liberal  supply  of 
rolling  stock  of  any  road  in  the  country  for  the  business  it 
has  to  transact.  During  the  past  two  years  the  road  has  been 
built  through  an  Indian  country  with  all  the  tribes  banded 
together  and  hostile.  Our  best  and  ablest  men  have  been 
killed ;  our  cars  and  stations  and  ranches  burned ;  our  men 
driven  off  and  our  stock  stolen.  Graders  and  track-layers, 
tie-men  and  station-builders,  have  had  to  sleep  under  guard, 
and  have  gone  to  their  work  in  the  daytime  with  their  picks 
and  shovels  and  their  mechanical  tools  in  one  hand  and  the 
rifle  in  the  other,  and  they  often  had  to  drop  one  and  use 
the  other. 

It  may  not  be  known  but  it  is  a  fact  that  the  graders  went 
to  their  work  as  soldiers,  stacked  their  arms  by  the  cuts  and 
worked  all  day,  with  hostile  bands  of  Indians  in  view,  ready 
to  pounce  upon,  kill  and  scalp  any  unlucky  or  negligent  per- 
son who  gave  them  an  opportunity.  The  company  paid  not 
only  the  cost  of  the  work  proper,  but  contractors  were  often 
paid  large  sums  for  the  risks  they  run.  It  is  an  easy  matter 
today,  after  the  enterprise  has  been  made  a  success,  and  when 
we  can  just  begin  to  see  the  beginning  of  the  end,  when  day- 
light begins  to  open  on  the  future  out  of  these  years  of  dark- 
ness, for  men  to  now  come  in  and  endeavor,  for  some  reason, 
I  know  not  what,  to  hamper  these  roads,  to  pass  laws  that  they 
know  will  make  them  spend  the  energies  that  it  is  their  duty 
to  put  on  the  road  and  which  are  necessary  to  complete  it. 
in  trying  to  break  down  the  barriers  that  this  bill,  if  passed, 
will  make  against  those  roads  in  the  financial  market.    And 


GENERAL  DODGE'S  SPEECH  IN  CONGRESS       9  5 

I  doubt  if  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  or  the  gentleman  from 
Wisconsin,  who  appear  to  make  this  great  republican  national 
work  their  special  objective  point,  would,  for  all  the  money 
in  it,  stand  as  I  have  had  to  do,  at  the  risk  of  my  life,  and  en- 
deavor to  keep  men  from  abandoning  the  work ;  would  travel 
as  I  have  done  to  make  the  surveys  and  construct  the  road, 
obliged  to  keep  all  the  time  within  the  range  of  a  Government 
musket,  for  to  be  outside  of  it  was  to  lose  your  scalp. 

And  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  while  the  Government  has  been 
liberal  to  this  great  enterprise,  I  hold  and  can  prove  that 
while  the  road  has  received  this  liberal  credit,  that  it  will 
bring  to  the  treasury  millions  in  the  saving  of  the  extra  ex- 
penses in  freight.  That  it  must  and  will  develop  a  country 
whose  wealth  no  one  today  can  predict.  The  mountains  those 
roads  cross  are  no  myth,  as  the  gentleman  states,  but  were 
formidable  obstructions  in  its  path,  which  have  been  over- 
come by  the  skill  and  energy  of  the  company.  These  mountains 
are  underlaid  with  gold,  silver,  iron,  copper  and  coal.  The 
timber  ranges  that  those  roads  pass  will  develop  an  immense 
lumber  trade,  and  the  millions  upon  millions  of  acres  of  Gov- 
ernment land  that  they  will  bring  into  the  market  and  render 
feasible  for  settlement  will  bring  to  the  Government  more 
money  than  all  the  bonds  amount  to ;  and  this  land  and  these 
minerals  never  would  have  brought  this  Government  one  cent 
if  it  were  not  for  the  building  of  these  roads.  The  inaccessi- 
bility and  the  trouble  and  cost  of  developing  the  country 
through  which  they  run  would  have  cost  ten  times  more  under 
any  other  circumstances  than  it  yould  have  yielded.  And  now, 
Mr.  Speaker,  these  Union  Pacific  Railroads,  when  completed, 
will  build  up  an  interest  right  in  the  center  of  that  heretofore 
great  unknown  country,  an  empire  that  shall  add  to  our  wealth, 
population,  capital  and  greatness,  from  a  source  we  never  ex- 
pected, and  by  no  other  means  could  we  ever  obtain. 


THE  CIVIL  ENGINEER  IN  AN  EARLY  DAY  AND  IN  THE 
CIVIL  WAR— ADDRESS  DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 
WESTERN  SOCIETY  OF  CIVIL  ENGINERS. 


I  have  been  requested  to  talk  to  you  about  the  civil  engi- 
neers of  my  day.  This  is  a  subject  of  so  much  importance  and 
so  much  breadth  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  grasp  it.  The 
work  of  the  civil  engineer  in  developing  our  country  and  in 
the  Civil  War  has  never  been  comprehended  or  proper  tribute 
paid  to  it,  and  I  can  take  it  up  only  in  small  details.  Perhaps 
I  can  show  it  to  you  more  clearly  by  stating  what  I  saw  of  it 
personally,  and  this  will  be  better  than  trying  to  go  into  the 
subject  generally. 

A  young  boy,  20  years  old,  I  left  Norwich  University, 
Vermont,  a  military  college,  as  a  civil  and  military  engineer. 
My  military  training  was  of  as  much  or  more  benefit  to  me 
generally,  perhaps,  in  the  work  I  had  to  undertake,  than  what 
I  had  learned  of  engineering,  for  it  taught  me  how  to  com- 
mand men;  it  gave  me  discipline,  a  respect  for  authority, 
obedience  to  order,  loyalty  to  my  country,  and  an  interest 
in  the  work  of  my  employer,  which  would  have  been  impos- 
sible for  me  to  have  obtained  in  any  other  way.  I  came  West 
and  took  an  axeman's  place  in  an  engineering  party  on  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad.  Mr.  Blackstone  was  the  division 
engineer,  with  headquarters  at  La  Salle,  Illinois.  I  was  assigned 
to  a  party  that  was  running  a  line  from  La  Salle  to  Dixon. 
As  soon  as  I  joined  it  I  saw  its  chief  was  a  lazy  fellow.  He 
soon  learned  that  I  could  run  an  instrument,  and  put  me  at 
that  work,  he  staying  in  the  house  pretending  to  work  up 
the  data  we  obtained  in  the  field.  It  was  a  cold  winter.  The 
thermometer  often  below  zero,  and  I  thought  I  saw  plainly 
the  line  I  was  running  would  not  be  acceptable  and  made  up 
my  mind  that  as  soon  as  we  returned  to  La  Salle  to  leave  the 
party  and  seek  a  position  somewhere  else,  for  I  was  satisfied 
that  Mr.  Blackstone  would  discharge  the  entire  party.    I  fol- 


9  8  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION  PACIFIC 

lowed  this  inclination.  When  I  returned  to  La  Salle  and  sub- 
mitted our  work  I  called  upon  Mr.  Blackstone,  asking  him 
for  my  pay,  stating  I  was  going  to  leave.  He  greeted  me  very 
cordial^  and  seemed  astonished  at  my  request.  However,  he 
paid  me  and  I  immediately  left.  Years  after  this  incident, 
when  I  had  become  better  acquainted  with  Mr.  Blackstone, 
he  used  to  make  a  good  deal  of  fun  of  me  by  stating  he  knew 
I  had  run  the  line,  that  it  was  a  good  line,  and  that  he  in- 
tended to  give  me  the  chief's  place  and  put  me  at  the  head  of 
the  party,  thus  showing  that  I  was  a  little  previous  in  my  act, 
and  that  I  did  not  know  how  good  a  line  I  had  run. 

When  I  came  West  I  had  in  mind  the  Pacific  Railroad, 
and  as  an  indication  to  you  of  my  enthusiasm  in  that  quarter, 
I  quote  an  extract  that  I  wrote  home  from  Peru,  Illinois,  Sep- 
tember 12,  1851.  It  is  as  follows : 

"I  closed  my  last  letter  by  saying  that  there  was  good 
news.  A  telegraph  despatch  was  received  here  that  the  Rock 
Island  road  200  miles  long  was  to  be  built,  that  Sheffield  and 
Farnam  of  Connecticut  had  taken  the  contract.  This  will  give 
direct  connection  by  the  Rock  Island  road  with  Wisconsin, 
Iowa  and  Oregon,  for  this  is  the  true  Pacific  road  and  will 
soon  be  built  to  Council  Bluffs,  where  a  road  from  St.  Louis 
will  meet  it.  Then  from  Council  Bluffs  to  San  Francisco,  this 
being  the  shortest  and  most  feasible  route.  In  an  eastern  direc- 
tion, this  road  connects  with  the  Michigan  Southern,  which 
is  nearly  completed  to  Chicago,  and  will  give  us  through  rail- 
road connections  with  New  York  and  Boston." 

The  Council  Bluffs  I  mention  was  that  named  by  Lewis 
and  Clark,  the  town  now  known  by  that  name  not  having  been 
organized  at  that  time. 

I  left  the  Illinois  Central  and  went  to  the  Rock  Island  as 
axeman  under  Mr.  Peter  A.  Dey,  who  was  the  division  engi- 
neer stationed  at  Tiskilwa,  Illinois.  I  was  with  Mr.  Dey  about 
eight  months,  and  under  his  direction  had  made  a  survey  of 
the  Peoria  and  Bureau  Valley  Railroad  in  Illinois.  Mr.  Dey 
was  promoted  to  chief  engineer  of  the  Mississippi  &  Missouri 
Railroad  and  took  me  to  Iowa  as  his  principal  assistant,  plac- 
ing me  in  charge  of  a  party  in  the  field,  which  was  a  very  fine 
promotion  for  the  limited  experience  I  had,  and  it  is  one  of 


THE   CIVIL  ENGINEER   IN  AN  EARLY   DAY  99 

the  greatest  satisfactions  of  my  life  to  have  had  his  friendship 
from  the  time  I  entered  his  service  until  now.  Mr.  Dey  is  not 
only  a  very  distinguished  citizen  of  Iowa,  but  is  one  of  the 
most  prominent  engineers  of  this  country.  He  was  known  for 
his  great  ability,  his  uprightness,  and  the  square  dealing  he 
<ia\'  everyone.  He  has  greatly  honored  his  state  in  the  many 
public  positions  he  has  held.  He  has  a  wide  reputation  as  engi- 
neer and  railway  constructor,  and  in  later  years  as  railway 
commissioner  of  that  state. 

In  May,  1853,  we  crossed  the  Mississippi  River  at  Daven- 
port and  surveyed  the  first  railroad  line  across  Iowa.  The 
settlements  in  Iowa  then  were  confined  almost  entirely  to  the 
country  between  Davenport  and  Iowa  City.  From  Iowa  City 
west  to  Des  Moines  there  were  very  few  people,  and  from 
twelve  miles  west  of  Des  Moines  to  Council  Bluffs  there  were 
none.  On  reaching  the  Missouri  River  my  party  was  instructed 
to  push  west  into  the  great  Platte  Valley  to  determine  where 
a  road  running  up  that  valley  would  strike  the  Missouri  River. 
That  country  then  was  occupied  solely  by  Indians.  There  was 
scarcely  a  man  in  my  party  who  had  seen  an  Indian.  We 
crossed  the  river  in  a  flat  boat,  and  I  commenced  the  surveys 
west  from  where  the  city  of  Omaha  now  stands.  After  I  had 
raised  the  bluffs  skirting  the  Missouri,  I  left  the  party  in 
charge  of  my  assistant,  Mr.  J.  E.  House,  and  went  on  alone 
some  twenty-five  miles  to  the  Elkhorn  Valley,  looking  up  the 
country  ahead.  On  reaching  the  Elkhorn  Valley  about  noon, 
I  lariated  my  horse,  took  my  rifle,  hid  it,  and,  making  a  pillow 
of  my  saddle,  lay  down  to  take  a  rest.  I  had  lost  a  good  deal 
of  sleep  and  was  very  tired.  How  long  I  slept  there  I  do  not 
know,  but  I  was  awakened  by  the  noise  of  my  pony.  Jumping 
up  I  saw  an  Indian  leading  him  towards  the  Elkhorn  River 
as  rapidly  as  he  could.  The  pony  was  holding  back,  being 
evidently  very  much  frightened  at  the  Indian;  I  was  greatly 
frightened,  hardly  knowing  what  to  do,  but  I  grabbed  my 
rifle  and  rushed  after  the  pony  and  the  Indian  yelling  at  the 
top  of  my  voice.  The  Indian  let  go  the  horse  and  swam  across 
the  Elkhorn  out  of  my  reach ;  and  I  was  very  glad  to  see  him 
go.  In  1865,  during  the  Indian  campaign  I  made  upon  the 
plains,   that   Indian  was   an   enlisted   man   in   a   battalion   of 


100  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

Pawnees.  He  told  his  commander,  Major  North,  that  the  reason 
he  gave  up  the  horse  was  I  made  so  much  noise  it  frightened 
him  so  it  nearly  scared  him  to  death. 

Returning  to  the  party  I  found  them  camped  on  the  Papil- 
lion  Creek,  with  the  camp  full  of  Indians  and  every  man  in 
the  party  cooking  or  feeding  them.  I  saw  that  radical  action 
had  to  be  taken  or  the  provisions  I  had  would  all  be  gone. 
My  party  was  thoroughly  armed.  I  got  them  together  imme- 
diately and  notified  the  Indians  to  get  out.  By  my  prompt 
action  they  saw  we  meant  business  and  left  us.  From  that  time 
until  I  stopped  my  work  on  the  plains  I  never  allowed  the 
party  to  have  Indians  come  into  camp  except  by  the  party's 
permission. 

This  is  the  kind  of  responsibility  the  young  engineer  in 
that  day  had  to  undertake.  He  was  away  from  anyone  to 
advise  with  or  to  lean  upon.  He  was  responsible  for  his  party, 
its  life  and  safety  were  in  his  hands,  and  in  the  development 
of  this  country  the  risks  taken  and  the  dangers  faced  have 
never  been  told. 

From  this  time  until  the  Civil  "War  we  were  engaged  in 
building  the  railroad  to  the  capital  of  Iowa,  Iowa  City,  and 
in  making  reconnoissance  west  of  the  Missouri  River  for  a 
Pacific  railroad.  It  might  seem  strange  to  you  that  although 
the  Government  spent  millions  of  dollars  in  examining  differ- 
ent routes  for  the  Pacific  railway,  covering  the  country  be- 
tween parallels  of  thirty-two  and  forty-nine,  which  reports  of 
examinations  were  printed  in  eleven  large  volumes,  no  exam- 
ination was  made  by  the  Government  upon  the  most  feasible 
route  across  the  continent ;  that  was  left  to  private  enterprise. 
Our  exploration  and  reconnoissance,  up  to  1860,  had  deter- 
mined on  the  forty-second  parallel  of  latitude,  practically  the 
present  line  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  crossing  the  conti- 
nent. The  detailed  surveys  had  not  been  made,  but  the  buffalo, 
the  Indian,  the  fur  trader,  the  telegraph,  the  pony  express,  the 
stage  line,  and  finally  the  engineer,  determined  that  line  and 
the  road,  when  built,  followed  it. 

In  1861  the  Civil  War  came.  I  went  into  the  service  with 
six  hundred  other  civil  engineers,  who  were  graduates  of 
Norwich  University,  all  of  whom  became  commissioned  officers, 


THE   CIVIL  ENGINEER   IN  AN  EARLY  DAY  101 

many  of  them  rising  to  the  highest  rank  and  to  the  highest 
command.  Their  work  as  civil  engineers  during  the  war  was 
only  second  to  that  of  their  military  duties  as  a  soldier,  and 
for  this  work  as  civil  engineers  they  have  received  no  credit. 
Also  there  were  many  enlisted  men  detailed  as  engineers; 
they  mapped  out  the  roads  and  the  streams;  they  rebuilt  the 
railroads  and  they  destroyed  them;  they  made  many  of  our 
campaigns  possible  by  their  facilities  in  overcoming  obstacles; 
they  built  temporary  bridges ;  they  showed  great  ingenuity  in 
throwing  up  temporary  entrenchments  even  during  the  bat- 
tles, and  they  constructed  impregnable  forts;  always  brave, 
never  flinching  a  duty,  and  there  is  no  commander  of  a  brigade, 
division  or  corps  but  who  appreciated  their  great  and  valuable 
service. 

In  1862  I  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  Central 
Division  of  the  Mississippi,  with  orders  to  reconstruct  the 
railroad  reaching  from  Columbus,  Kentucky,  to  Corinth,  Mis- 
sissippi, for  the  purpose  of  bringing  supplies  to  the  army  then 
concentrated  at  Corinth.  This  line  of  road  crossed  many  deep 
bayous  which  had  been  spanned  by  truss  bridges,  all  of  which 
had  been  destroyed  by  the  enemy  as  they  retreated,  and  as  I 
looked  at  the  task  before  me  and  saw  those  deep  bayous  with 
no  foundations,  and  with  no  possible  means  of  putting  in 
proper  piers  and  abutments,  or  furnishing  proper  superstruc- 
ture, it  was  a  problem  appalling  to  anyone.  I  had  two  Wis- 
consin regiments  in  my  command,  one  was  commanded  by 
Colonel  George  E.  Bryant,  who  had  been  a  Norwich  University 
cadet  and  a  civil  engineer.  He  commanded  a  regiment  that 
was  raised  in  the  logging  camps  of  Wisconsin.  As  soon  as  I 
received  this  order,  I  ordered  every  engineer,  civil  or  mechan- 
ical, or  anyone  who  had  any  experience  in  such  work  in  the 
command  to  report  to  me,  and  I  was  astonished  to  see  the 
number  of  enlisted  men  who  reported.  We  held  a  consultation 
as  to  how  we  should  handle  this  problem,  and  decided  to  put 
the  twelfth  Wisconsin  into  the  woods  with  their  axes,  that 
was  about  all  the  tools  we  had,  to  make  crib  piers  for  these 
streams.  It  was  easy  work  for  us  to  handle  the  culverts  and 
it  was  astonishing  how  soon  we  rebuilt  this  railroad.  The  log 
cribs  were  bolted  together  by  dowel  pins  made  from  the  iron 


102  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

rods  of  the  house  truss.  We  made  stringers  thirty  and  forty 
feet  long  and  sunk  our  piers  to  a  foundation  that  would  carry 
our  trains.  Within  two  months  we  had  rebuilt  this  road,  and 
had  put  up  at  each  important  bridge  a  blockhouse,  so  a  small 
force  could  hold  it  against  almost  any  enemy,  and  in  the  cele- 
brated raid  of  Forrest  up  through  that  country  where  he 
destroyed  most  of  the  bridges  south  of  Jackson,  Tennessee, 
when  he  struck  the  blockhouses  in  our  territory  he  was  re- 
pulsed at  every  point.  This  drew  the  attention  of  General 
Grant  to  our  work,  and  he  immediately  ordered  block  houses 
built  at  every  bridge  on  the  railroads  within  his  command. 

The  ingenuity  of  these  young  engineers  in  putting  up 
these  bridges,  block  houses  and  stockades,  in  overcoming  every 
difficulty,  and  the  interest  they  took  in  their  work  soon  con- 
vinced me  that  all  it  needed  in  our  army  for  effective  con- 
struction or  destruction  of  a  railroad  was  proper  organization 
of  the  material  in  hand.  The  mechanics  in  the  command  put 
the  locomotives  and  cars  on  their  feet  and  run  them  so  that 
virtually  the  young  engineers  and  young  mechanics  in  that 
command  recreated  tliQ  road,  and  as  long  as  my  corps  was 
under  General  Grant's  direction  or  that  of  General  Sherman, 
whenever  there  was  any  destruction  or  reconstruction  of  any 
kind  to  be  accomplished,  it  fell  to  us,  until  the  pioneer  corps 
of  the  Sixteenth  Army  Corps  had  as  good  a  reputation  for 
their  mechanical  work  as  they  had  for  their  fighting  ability. 

In  the  fall  of  1863,  when  General  Grant  was  ordered  to 
Chattanooga,  my  corps  was  lying  at  Corinth,  when  it  received 
orders  to  join  Sherman  in  his  march  to  the  relief  of  Chatta- 
nooga. Having  a  much  longer  distance  to  march  than  any  of 
the  other  commands,  I  was  not  able  to  reach  Chattanooga  in 
time  to  take  part  in  that  battle,  but  when  I  reached  Pulaski 
on  the  Nashville  &  Decatur  Railroad,  I  received  orders  from 
General  Grant  to  halt  and  rebuild  that  line  from  Nashville 
to  Decatur,  the  entire  line  having  been  destroyed.  There  were 
several  truss  bridges  crossing  Duck  River,  and  also  some  very 
high  trestles,  some  of  them  being  125  feet  high;  also  the  Ten- 
nessee River  had  to  be  crossed.  General  Grant  was  very  anxi- 
ous to  have  this  road  built  rapidly  in  order  to  feed  his  army 
at   Chattanooga,   which  was   in   great   distress,   and   Sherman 


THE  CIVIL  ENGINEER   IN  AN   EARLY   DAY  103 

told  me  the  quicker  I  built  the  road  the  sooner  I  would  get 
something  for  my  command  to  eat,  as  we  were  entirely  away 
from  any  base  of  supplies,  living  off  the  country,  and  had  been 
doing  so  during  the  entire  march. 

The  work  of  the  young  engineers  in  rebuilding  this  road 
is  a  good  deal  better  stated  by  General  Grant  in  his  Memoirs 
than  I  can  tell  you,  and  I  will  read  what  he  says : 

"I  gave  an  order  to  Sherman  to  halt  General  G.  M.  Dodge's 
command,  of  about  eight  thousand  men,  at  Athens,  and  sub- 
sequently directed  the  latter  to  arrange  his  troops  along  the 
railroad  from  Decatur  north  towards  Nashville,  and  to  rebuild 
that  road.  The  road  from  Nashville  to  Decatur  passes  over  a 
broken  country,  cut  up  with  innumerable  streams,  many  of 
them  of  considerable  width,  and  with  valleys  far  below  the 
roadbed.  All  the  bridges  over  these  had  been  destroyed,  and 
the  rails  taken  up  and  twisted  by  the  enemy.  All  the  cars 
and  locomotives  not  carried  off  had  been  destroyed  as  effectu- 
ally as  they  knew  how  to  destroy  them.  All  of  the  bridges 
and  culverts  had  been  destroyed  between  Nashville  and  Deca- 
tur, and  thence  to  Stevenson,  where  the  Memphis  and  Charles- 
ton and  the  Nashville  and  Chattanooga  roads  unite.  The  re- 
building of  this  road  would  give  us  two  uoads  as  far  as  Stev- 
enson over  which  to  supply  the  army.  From  Bridgeport,  a  short 
distance  east,  the  river  supplements  the  road. 

"General  Dodge  was  an  experienced  railroad  builder.  He 
had  no  tools  to  work  with  except  those  of  the  pioneers — axes, 
picks  and  spades.  With  these  he  was  able  to  entrench  his  men 
and  protect  them  against  surprises  by  small  parties  of  the 
enemy.  As  he  had  no  base  of  supplies  until  the  road  could  be 
completed  back  to  Nashville,  the  first  matter  to  consider  after 
protecting  his  men  was  the  getting  in  of  food  and  forage  from 
the  surrounding  country.  He  had  his  men  and  teams  bring 
in  all  the  grain  they  could  find,  or  all  they  needed,  and  all  the 
cattle  for  beef,  and  such  other  food  as  could  be  found.  Millers 
were  detailed  from  the  ranks  to  run  the  mills  along  the  line  of 
the  army.  When  those  were  not  near  enough  to  the  troops 
for  protection  they  were  taken  down  and  moved  up  in  like 
manner.  Blacksmiths  were  detailed  and  set  to  work  making 
tools  necessary  in  railroad  and  bridge  building.   Axeman  were 


104  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

put  to  work  getting  out  timber  for  bridges  and  cutting  fuel 
for  locomotives  when  the  road  should  be  completed.  Car 
builders  were  set  to  work  repairing  the  locomotives  and  cars. 
Thus  every  branch  of  railroad  building,  making  tools  to  work 
with,  and  supplying  the  workmen  with  food,  was  all  going 
cm  at  once,  and  without  the  aid  of  a  mechanic  or  laborer  except 
what  the  command  itself  furnished. 

"General  Dodge  had  the  work  assigned  him  finished  within 
forty  days  after  receiving  his  orders.  The  number  of  bridges 
rebuilt  was  one  hundred  and  eighty-two,  many  of  them  over 
deep,  wide  chasms;  the  length  of  road  repaired  was  one  hun- 
dred and  two  miles." 

In  1864,  when  it  came  to  the  Atlanta  campaign,  most  of 
the  railroad  work,  bridging,  etc.,  was  done  by  organized  rail- 
road men  under  General  Wright.  My  command  was  called 
upon  only  two  or  three  times  in  an  emergency. 

I  remember  when  we  had  flanked  the  enemy  out  of  the 
Kenesaw  Mountain  line,  where  our  extreme  right  rested  on 
the  Chattahocha  River  some  miles  southwest  of  the  railroad 
crossing,  General  Sherman  came  to  my  headquarters  and  told 
me  he  proposed  to  flank  Atlanta  by  moving  his  army  to  the 
left.  We  all  supposed  he  was  going  by  the  right.  He  said 
to  me  there  was  a  place  called  Roswell  Shoals  on  the  Chatta- 
hocha where  he  desired  to  cross  a  portion  of  his  army.  He 
said  the  shoals  were  shallow  and  described  them  to  me,  asking 
me  how  long  it  would  take  for  my  command  to  build  a  bridge 
over  that  stream.  He  stated  his  engineers  had  told  him  it  was 
a  big  job.  I  looked  the  matter  over  and  told  him  about  a  week. 
He  seemed  astonished  and  left  me,  but  in  a  very  short  time 
I  received  orders  from  my  commander,  General  McPherson, 
to  move  with  my  corps  as  rapidly  as  possible  to  Roswell  some 
thirty-one  miles  away,  and  that  I  would  receive  orders  from 
General  Sherman.  We  moved  and  made  a  march  of  thirty-one 
miles  without  stopping  except  for  resting  our  men,  and  reached 
there  about  Sunday  noon. 

When  I  arrived  there  I  found  that  Roswell  had  several 
large  factories  that  had  been  supplying  material  to  the  enemy 
and  I  saw  if  I  had  the  timber  in  those  factories  I  could  soon 


THE  CIVIL  ENGINEER   IN  AN  EARLY   DAY  105 

put  up  a  bridge  across  the  river.  The  enemy  occupied  the 
opposite  side,  and  one  of  the  most  inspiring  sights  I  ever  saw 
in  my  life  was  when  I  ordered  the  celebrated  Ohio  brigade  to 
ford  the  river  and  take  the  opposite  bank.  The  brigade  formed 
in  column  with  regiment  front ;  the  corps  bands  were  brought 
down  to  the  river;  the  artillery  was  placed  so  as  to  cover 
their  crossing,  and  as  the  boys  stepped  into  the  river  carrying 
their  cartridge  boxes  on  their  bayonets  and,  with  cheers,  started 
to  wade  across  the  river,  the  bands  played,  the  artillery  opened 
fire,  and  the  enemy  poured  in  their  volleys.  Occasionally  a  boy 
or  two  would  strike  a  hole  and  go  under,  but  soon  came  up, 
and  when  they  got  across  they  rushed  for  the  cover  of  a  cut 
bank,  so  the  enemy's  fire  would  be  less  effective.  There  they 
reformed,  and  charging,  soon  cleared  the  works.  My  pioneer 
corps  now  was  very  effective.  It  was  about  1,500  strong  and 
was  organized  into  squads  with  a  civil  or  mechanical  engineer 
at  the  head  of  every  squad.  Everyone  knew  exactly  what  his 
duty  was,  just  where  and  how  to  go  to  work,  and  all  I  had  to 
do  was  to  give  the  order.  I  immediately  gave  the  order  to  pull 
down  the  cotton  factories,  and  on  Monday  morning  you  could 
stand  on  the- bank  and  see  that  bridge  walk  up,  so  that  Wednes- 
day at  noon,  in  three  days,  I  notified  General  Sherman  that  it 
was  ready  for  crossing.  He  was  astonished  and  sent  a  proper 
tribute  to  the  young  engineers  for  their  quick  work.  My  offi- 
cial despatch  to  him  read  as  follows : 

"A  footbridge  710  feet  long  was  thrown  across  the  river 
and  from  Monday  noon,  July  10,  until  Wednesday  night,  July 
12,  a  good  substantial,  double  track,  trestle  road  bridge,  710 
feet  long  and  fourteen  feet  high,  was  built  by  the  pioneer  corps 
from  the  command." 

The  cotton  factories  that  I  had  torn  down  were  claimed 
by  a  Frenchman  to  belong  to  him,  he  had  a  French  flag  flying 
over  his  residence,  but  not  over  the  factories.  On  Monday 
after  we  had  torn  down  a  portion  of  one  of  the  factories,  my 
Judge  Advocate  came  to  me  and  told  me  he  thought  I  might 
be  getting  into  trouble;  that  this  Frenchman  was  entering  a 
protest.  I  had  gone  too  far  to  stop  taking  down  the  factories, 
but  I  thought  it  probably  better  to  protect  myself,  and  com- 


106  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

municated  with  General  Sherman,  who  wrote  me  a  letter  dated 
July  11,  as  follows : 

"Headquarters  Military  Division  of  the  Mississippi. 
"In  the  Field  Near  Chattanooga  River,  July  11,  1864. 
"General  Dodge, 

"Roswell,  Ga. 
"I  know  you  have  a  big  job,  but  that  is  nothing  new  for 
you.  Tell  General  Newton  that  his  corps  is  now  up  near  Gen- 
eral Sehofield's  crossing,  and  all  is  quiet  thereabouts.  He  might 
send  down  and  move  his  camps  to  proximity  of  his  corps,  but 
I  think  Roswell  and  Shallow  Ford  so  important  that  I  prefer 
him  to  be  near  you  until  you  are  well  fortified.  If  he  needs 
rations  tell  him  to  get  his  wagons  up,  and  I  think  you  will  be 
able  to  spare  him  day  after  tomorrow.  I  know  the  bridge  at 
Roswell  is  important,  and  you  may  destroy  «all  Georgia  to 
make  it  good  and  strong. 

"W/T.  SHERMAN. 
' '  Major-General  Commanding. ' ' 

You  notice  that  General  Sherman  was  very  diplomatic.  He 
says  nothing  in  relation  to  international  law  or  the  French  flag, 
but  tells  me  I  may  destroy  all  Georgia  to  accomplish  what  I  had 
to  do.  Of  course,  I  read  between  the  lines,  and  went  on  build- 
ing the  bridge. 

Sherman  commenced  crossing  his  army  over  this  bridge 
on  Wednesday  afternoon  and  made  his  celebrated  flank  move- 
ment on  Atlanta  where  the  great  battles  of  the  19th,  22d  and 
28th  of  July  were  fought  and  Atlanta  finally  occupied. 

Sherman  was  always  profuse  in  his  praise  of  the  young 
engineers  of  the  army  that  were  continually  at  work  gathering 
up  information  for  us.  I  had  a  very  efficient  corps  for  that 
work  under  me  and  Sherman  wrote  me,  thanking  me  for  what 
I  had  been  sending  him,  saying  he  would  store  it  up  for  future 
use.  This  information  concerning  the  streams,  the  villages  and 
roads  was  compiled  at  his  headquarters,  printed  on  cloth,  and  a 
copy  sent  to  each  corps  or  division  commander  and  was  of  great 
service  to  us.  There  was  one  young  man  detailed  to  me,  who 
afterwards  became  a  very  noted  engineer,  Marshall  F.  Hurd, 
who  enlisted  from  Muscatine,  Iowa,  in  the  Second  Iowa  In- 


THE   CIVIL  ENGINEER   IN  AN   EARLY   DAY  107 

fantry.  I  soon  discovered  that  he  was  a  genius  and  of  great 
ability  as  an  engineer,  of  excellent  practical  judgment  and 
very  brave.  We  all  tried  to  get  him  promoted  and  a  commis- 
sion given  him  so  he  could  command  officers  and  men,  but  we 
never  could  accomplish  it.  However,  he  virtually  got  to  the 
head  of  the  pioneer  corps  of  the  Sixteenth  Army  Corps,  and 
the  boys  all  dubbed  him  a  major;  and  he  was  known  all 
through  the  war  as  Major  Hurd,  not  only  by  the  men  of  my 
corps  but  by  the  other  corps.  He  would  take  his  pioneer  corps 
out  to  build  entrenchments, ;  he  never  allowed  them  to  run 
when  the  skirmish  line  of  the  enemy  made  an  attack,  which 
was  often,  but  they  would  lay  down  their  implements  where 
they  were,  take  their  rifles,  and  fight  it  out  themselves.  He 
was  very  resourceful  in  an  emergency.  After  the  war  he  was 
connected  with  us  on  the  Union  Pacific  and  was  at  the  head 
of  some  of  the  surveys  both  on  the  Union  Pacific  and  the 
Southern  Pacific,  fought  battles  with  the  Indians,  and  when 
the  Canadian  Pacific  was  built  he  was  sent  for  antl  went  to 
that  work,  running  some  of  the  important  lines  over  the  moun- 
tain division.  He  was  the  most  modest,  retiring,  unassuming 
man  I  ever  met.  He  now  lies  buried  in  the  cemetery  at  Denver 
with  a  monument  raised  to  his  memory  and  upon  it  a  proper 
tribute  to  his  great  work.  I  mention  him  only  as  one  among 
hundreds  of  enlisted  men  who  performed  such  duties. 

In  May,  1865,  I  returned  to  the  Union  Pacific  Railway. 
Mr.  Dey  having  resigned  as  chief  engineer,  I  was  appointed 
to  that  office.  General  Sherman  in  giving  me  leave  of  absence 
to  go  there  and  take  up  this  work  said  in  his  letter:  "As  soon 
as  General  Pope  reaches  Leavenworth  or  St.  Louis  to  relieve 
you,  I  consent  for  you  to  go  to  Omaha  and  begin  what  I  trust 
will  be  the  real  beginning  of  the  great  road." 

Almost  the  first  despatch  when  I  reached  Omaha  was  one 
from  the  commander  at  Port  Collins,  Colorado,  he  had  been 
with  me  during  my  command  of  that  country,  telling  me  that 
a  young  man  by  the  name  of  Eddy  had  brought  in  an  engi- 
neering corps  which  had  a  fight  with  the  Indians  and  the  chief 
of  the  party  had  been  killed.  I  instructed  him  to  have  the 
corps  meet  me  on  Lodge  Pole  Creek,  as  I  was  just  starting  west 
over  the  line.   I  found  that  Eddy  was  a  young  soldier  enlisted 


108  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION  PACIFIC 

in  the  Thirteenth  Illinois  Infantry,  and  had  served  under  me 
in  the  war.  In  this  fight,  after  the  chief  had  been  killed,  he 
rallied  the  rest  of  his  party  and  brought  it  in  safety  to  the 
military  post. 

He  stayed  with  me  during  the  construction  of  the  Union 
Pacific  and  also  the  Texas  Pacific ;  probably  many  of  you  know 
him,  as  at  one  time  he  was  general  manager  of  the  Southwest- 
ern System ;  he  died  in  the  service.  I  speak  of  him  only  as  an 
example  of  what  the  engineers,  during  1866,  1867,  1868  and 
1869  had  to  face.  The  line  was  covered  by  engineers  from  the 
Missouri  River  to  the  California  State  line,  and  every  party 
was  thoroughly  armed  and  had  escorts,  but  many  of  our  best 
men  were  killed. 

One  of  the  great  problems  that  confronted  our  early  sur- 
veys was  the  crossing  of  the  Black  Hills,  a  spur  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  There  was  no  trouble  in  obtaining  a  line  from  the 
summit  of  the  range  and  descending  to  the  west  into  Laramie 
Plains,  but  the  country  on  the  east  dropped  off  so  rapidly, 
there  was  no  stream  nor  any  divide  we  could  find  that  was 
practicable  for  a  116-foot  grade;  the  engineers  had  examined 
nearly  every  stream  and  every  divide.  The  divides  from  the 
summit  for  a  long  distance  down  were  favorable,  but  where 
the  division  of  the  granite  and  sedimentary  formations  joined 
there  would  be  a  drop  of  500  feet  in  1,000,.  and  we  could  not 
find  supporting  ground  to  hold  our  grade  to  overcome  this 
great  fall. 

In  1865,  as  I  was  returning  from  the  Yellowstone  country, 
after  finishing  the  Indian  campaigns,  I  took  my  command 
along  the  east  base  of  the  Black  Hills,  following  up  the  Chug 
Water,  and  so  on  south,  leaving  my  train  every  day  and  going 
on  to  the  summit  of  the  Black  Hills  with  a  view  of  trying  to 
discover  some  approach  from  the  east  that  was  feasible.  When 
we  got  down  to  the  crossing  of  the  Lodge  Pole,  I  knew  the 
Indians  were  following  us,  but  I  left  the  command  with  a  few 
cavalrymen  and  guides,  with  a  view  of  following  the  country 
from  the  Cheyenne  Pass  south,  leaving  strict  orders  with  the 
command  if  they  saw  smoke  signals  they  were  to  come  to  us 
immediately.  We  worked  south  from  the  Cheyenne  Pass  and 
around  the  head  of  Crow  Creek  when  I  looked  down  into  the 


THE   CIVIL  ENGINEER   IN  AN   EARLY  DAY  109 

valley  there  was  a  band  of  Indians  who  had  worked  them- 
selves in  between  our  party  and  the  trains.  I  knew  it  meant 
trouble  for  us ;  they  were  either  after  us  or  our  stock.  I,  there- 
fore, immediately  dismounted,  and  giving  our  horses  to  a 
couple  of  men  with  instructions  to  keep  on  the  west  side  of 
the  ridge  out  of  sight  and  gun  shot  as  much  as  possible,  we 
took  the  ridge  between  Crow  Creek  and  Lone  Tree  Creek, 
keeping  upon  it  and  holding  the  Indians  away  from  us  as  our 
arms  were  so  far-reaching  that  when  they  came  too  near  our 
best  shots  would  reach  them  and  they  soon  saw  their  danger. 

We  made  signals  for  our  cavalry,  but  they  did  not  seem 
to  see  them.  It  was  getting  along  in  the  afternoon  as  we 
worked  down  this  ridge,  that  I  began  to  discover  we  were 
on  an  apparently  very  fine  approach  to  the  Black  Hills,  and 
one  of  the  guides  has  stated  that  I  said:  "If  we  saved  our 
scalps  I  believed  we  had  found  a  railroad  line  over  the  moun- 
tains. "  About  4  o'clock,  the  Indians  were  preparing  to  take 
the  ridge  in  our  front,  the  cavalry  now  saw  our  signals  and 
soon  came  to  our  rescue,  and  when  we  reached  the  valley  I 
was  satisfied  that  the  ridge  we  had  followed  was  one  which 
we  could  climb  with  a  maximum  grade  within  our  charter  and 
with  comparatively  light  work. 

As  soon  as  I  took  charge  of  the  Union  Pacific,  I  imme- 
diately wired  to  Mr.  James  A.  Evans,  who  had  charge  of  that 
division,  and  who  had  been  working  on  this  mountain  range 
for  nearly  a  year,  describing  this  ridge  to  him,  as  I  had  thor- 
oughly marked  it  by  a  lone  tree  on  Lone  Tree  Creek,  and  by 
a  very  steep  cut  Butte  on  Crow  Creek,  and  a  deep  depression 
in  the  ridge  where  the  granite  and  sedimentary  formations 
joined.  He  immediately  made  an  examination  and  discovered 
a  remarkably  direct  line  of  only  a  ninety-foot  grade  reaching 
from  the  summit  to  the  valley  of  Crow  Creek,  near  where 
Cheyenne  now  stands,  and  this  summit  I  immediately  named 
for  my  old  commander,  General  Sherman.  The  Union  Pacific 
is  constructed  over  this  line  and  it  is  one  of  the  two  eighty- 
foot  grades  now  left  on  the  Union  Pacific  that  they  were  unable 
to  reduce  during  the  reconstruction  of  the  road. 

In  building  the  Union  Pacific  line  it  was  our  endeavor 
to  pass  through  the  town  of  Denver,  which,  at  that  time,  was 


110  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

the  center  of  the  mining  interest  of  Colorado.  We  therefore 
placed  in  the  mountains  a  party  under  Mr.  P.  T.  Brown,  a 
very  promising  young  engineer,  who  spent  part  of  the  summer 
and  most  of  the  fall  endeavoring  to  force  his  way  through 
the  mountains  and  find  a  line  through  the  middle  park,  and 
so  on  west  to  Salt  Lake.  The  snow  in  the  mountains  was  so 
deep  that  even  in  September  parties  were  driven  out  of  the 
high  altitudes.  Not  receiving  very  satisfactory  reports  from 
this  party  I  joined  it  in  November  with  a  view  of  endeavoring 
to  cross  the  mountains  at  the  head  of  Boulder  Creek,  at  what 
is  now  the  Hog  Back,  and  near  where  the  Moffat  Railroad 
crosses  the  mountains.  We- were  on  this  mountain  November  7 
in  a  terrific  snow  storm ;  one  of  the  worst  I  ever  saw  and  one 
we  could  not  make  the  mules  face.  I  saw  to  save  the  party  I 
would  have  to  abandon  my  pack  train  and  get  into  the  valley 
below.  We  therefore  unpacked  our  mules,  cached  the  packs, 
and  let  the  mules  go.  They  drifted  with  the  storm.  After  a 
day  and  night's  hard  struggle  with  the  party  we  got  down 
into  Boulder  Valley  about  midnight  and  into  a  stamp  mill  that 
was  being  built  there  by  General  Fitz  John  Porter,  and  though 
we  saved  the  party  we  did  not  feel  very  comfortable  from  the 
fact  that  we  had  left  our  provisions  and  lost  our  mules,  and 
not  knowing  that  we  should  ever  see  them  again.  It  is  a 
singular  circumstance  that  on  this  day  I  was  elected  to  Con- 
gress from  the  Missouri  River  District  in  Iowa>  but  had  for- 
gotten all  about  the  election  until  several  days  after.  Henry 
M.  Teller,  who  was  then  a  young  lawyer  in  Central  City,  and 
our  attorney,  sent  me  several  telegrams  notifying  me  that  I 
had  been  elected  to  Congress  by  the  largest  majority  ever 
given  in  the  district.  The  mules  drifted  west  into  the  middle 
park  and  around  Hot  Springs  and  there  wintered  very  well. 
In  the  spring  we  received  notice  that  they  were  there  and 
arranged  to  have  them  brought  in  to  us;  they  seemed  to  be 
in  good  condition  and  thej^  had  lived  in  that  high  altitude 
without  food,  except  what  they  could  get  from  browsing  and 
the  buffalo  grass  they  could  graze  from  under  the  snow. 

In  submitting  the  reports  of  my  chiefs  of  parties  for  the 
year  1866,  I  said : 

k'I  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  the  company  especially 


THE  CIVIL  ENGINEER   IN  AN  EARLY  DAY  111 

to  the  energy  and  perseverance  with  which  all  of  them  have 
performed  their  duty.  Often  threatened  by  Indian  attacks, 
sometimes  without  escort,  and  obliged  to  examine  the  country 
alone,  a  portion  of  the  time  during  the  winter,  they  all  have 
had  narrow  escapes,  have  had  stock  stolen,  camps  attacked, 
and  have  been  caught  in  heavy  snow  storms,  in  extreme  cold, 
without  fires;  but,  as  yet,  we  have  not  lost  any  lives,  nor  any 
stock  of  great  value.  In  a  country,  uninhabited,  100  to  1,000 
miles  away  from  any  aid,  and  thrown  upon  their  own  re- 
sources, their  positions  have  not  been  sinecures  or  their  respon- 
sibilities light.  I  have  never  given  an  order,  no  matter  how 
difficult  to  perform,  or  what  the  obstacle  to  overcome,  but 
they  have  all  obeyed  it  with  that  energy  and  personal  interest 
that  only  under  such  circumstances  can  bring  success.  The 
young  men  composing  the  parties  are,  as  a  general  thing,  far 
above  the  average,  many  of  them  of  fine  education,  and  who 
not  only  perform  the  duty  well,  but  intelligently.  To  Messrs. 
Evans,  Bates  and  House,  division  engineers,  and  Messrs.  Hills, 
Brown,  Hodges  and  O'Neil,  assistant  engineers,  who  have  had 
charge  of  parties,  I  am  under  special  obligations;  also  to  Mr. 
Van  Lennep,  the  geologist.  They  are  all  to  take  the  field  for 
1867."  " 

In  July,  1867,  Mr.  Percy  T.  Brown,  whose  division  ex- 
tended from  the  North  Platte  to  Green  River,  was  running  a 
line  across  the  Laramie  Plains.  His  party  was  camped  on 
Roek  Creek  where  they  were  attacked  by  the  Sioux.  Brown 
ut  on  the  line  with  most  of  the  party,  but  those  in  camp 
were  able  to  hold  the  Indians  off,  but  a  small  party  out  after 
wood,  under  a  promising  young  fellow  named  Clark,  a  nephew 
of  Thurlow  Weed,  of  New  York,  was  killed  with  one  of  his 
escort,  and  several  of  the  escort  were  wounded. 

The  Indians  on  the  plains  were  this  year  very  aggressive, 
and  were  not  satisfied  with  stealing.  Brown,  on  reaching  the 
divide  of  the  continent,  found  it  an  open  prairie,  extending 
some  150  miles  northeast  and  southwest  and  seventy  miles 
east  and  west.  The  Rocky  Mountains  had  from  an  elevation 
of  13.000  feet  dropped  down  to  one  of  7,000  feet  into  an  open 
plain,  and  the  divide  of  the  continent  is  really  a  great  basin 
some  500  feet  lower  than  the  general  level  of  the  country. 


112  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

Brown,  in  reconnoitering  the  country,  expecting  to  find 
a  stream  leading  into  the  waters  of  the  Pacific,  dropped  into 
this  basin,  and,  in  exploring  it  near  its  southern  rim,  he  struck 
300  Sioux  Indians  who  were  on  the  war  path.  He  had  with 
him  eight  men  of  his  escort,  and  he  immediately  took  posses- 
sion of  an  elevation  in  the  basin,  and  there,  from  12  o'clock 
until  nearly  dark,  fought  off  those  Indians. 

Just  before  dark,  a  shot  from  one  of  the  Indians  hit  Brown 
in  the  abdomen.  He  begged  the  men  to  leave  him  and  save 
themselves,  but  the  soldiers  refused  to  do  so.  They  had  to  give 
up  their  horses,  and  as  soon  as  the  Indians  obtained  them  they 
fled,  and  those  eight  soldiers  made  a  litter  of  their  carbines, 
and  through  the  tall  sage  brush  for  fifteen  miles,  that  night, 
they  packed  Brown  to  La  Clede  Stage  Station,  thinking  to 
save  him,  but  he  died  soon  after  reaching  the  station. 

In  my  examination  of  the  surveys  across  the  plains  during 
1867,  I  had  with  me  General  John  A.  Rawlins,  General  Grant's 
chief  of  staff.  General  Rawlin's  health  was  poor;  he  was 
threatened  with  consumption,  of  which  he  afterwards  died. 
General  Grant  wrote  me,  suggesting  that  in  some  one  of  my 
trips  I  take  him  with  me  so  as  to  give  him  the  benefit  of  the 
high,  dry  air,  which  it  was  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  "do.  He 
came  to  me  with  his  aide,  Major  Dunn,  Mr.  Rogers  and  Mr. 
John  E.  Corwith  of  Galena,  and  I  had  Mr.  John  R.  Duff,  the 
son  of  a  director  of  the  company,  and  David  Van  Lennep,  my 
geologist.  We  had  as  escort  two  companies  of  cavalry,  under 
Colonel  Misner,  and  a  company  of  infantry  to  guard  the  trains. 

The  Indians  were  very  aggressive  during  the  summer  of 
1867.  We  were  progressing  remarkably  well  with  the  work 
when  the  combined  attacks  of  the  Indians  along  our  whole 
line,  not  only  on  our  surveying  parties  far  west,  but  on  our 
graders,  killing  our  men  and  stealing  our  stock,  for  a  time 
virtually  blocked  up  our  work.  I  was  pushing  west  with  this 
party  to  overcome  these  detentions  and  reached  the  Red  Des- 
ert. We  were  then  in  an  unknown  country,  where  we  expteced 
to  find  the  divide  of  the  continent.  We  found  the  basin  that 
Brown  had  discovered,  and,  while  I  w^as  preparing  to  cross 
this  basin,  I  discovered  one  of  my  parties,  under  Mr.  Bates, 
who  was  running  a  line  from  Green  River  east  across  the  desert. 


THE   CIVIL  ENGINEER  IN  AN  EARLY   DAY  113 

They  had  been  three  days  without  water,  and  had  abandoned 
the  wagons,  and  were  running,  by  compass,  due  east  as  fast 
as  they  possibly  could  in  the  hope  of  striking  a  stream.  We  dis- 
covered them  several  miles  west  of  us  when  we  reached  the 
rim  of  the  basin,  and  we  first  thought  they  were  Indians,  but 
upon  watching  them  closely  I  discovered  they  were  white  men 
and  saw  they  were  in  trouble.  We  made  rapidly  towards  them 
and  found  them  in  a  deplorable  condition;  men  nearly  ex- 
hausted, tongues  swollen,  and  so  weakened  physically  that  they 
could  not  make  much  headway.  Our  opportune  finding  of 
them  saved  some  of  their  lives. 

Upon  our  return  trip,  after  reaching  Salt  Lake,  we  fol- 
lowed the  Bear  River  up  to  its  northern  bend  and  on  to  the 
Snake  River  by  the  Blacksmith  Fork  to  what  is  known  as 
Gray's  Lake  and  undertook  to  cross  the  mountains  from  there 
directly  eastward  to  the  South  Pass.  The  country  was  very 
rough.  The  Government  at  one  time  had  endeavored  to  make 
a  short  cut  from  the  South  Pass  to  the  Snake  River  by  what 
is  known  as  Lander's  Cut-off. 

When  I  reached  the  west  base  of  the  mountains  I  saw  we 
were  going  to  have  trouble  in  getting  our  trains  over.  General 
Rawlins  had  become  quite  fatigued  in  the  journey,  and  I  was 
in  the  habit  of  taking  him  and  going  ahead  of  the  party,  fixing 
our  camp  where  he  would  be  comfortable  for  the  day,  and  then 
bringing  up  the  rest  of  our  party,  escort  and  trains. 

This  day  I  went  nearly  to  the  top  of  the  first  range,  and 
when  we  raked  away  the  snow  to  pitch  our  tents  we  found  the 
ground  thick  with  the  mountain  strawberry.  We  had  seen  a 
good  many  grizzly  bears  near  Gray's  Lake,  driven  from  the 
mountains  by  the  fires,  and  I  left  positive  instructions  for  no 
one  to  go  out  and  follow  a  grizzly  or  attempt  to  shoot  one. 

The  mountains  were  so  steep  and  rough  I  went  back  to 
bring  up  the  trains  which  had  to  be  hauled  up  the  mountains 
with  doubling  up  our  mules  and  putting  the  infantry  on  pro- 
longs ahead  of  them.  About  four  in  the  afternoon,  after  we 
had  gotten  the  trains  over  the  roughest  of  the  ground.  I  re- 
turned to  camp  and  found  Rawlins  and  Dunn  away.  I  asked 
the  cook  where  they  were,  and  he  said  he  thought  they  had 
gone  out  to  follow  a  grizzly  that  had  passed  by  the  camp  a  short 


114  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

time  before.  I  had  j^ith  me  one  of  our  best  guides,  Sol  Gee. 
Knowing  that  if  they  found  the  bear  and  shot  it  there  would, 
in  all  probability,  be  trouble,  I  took  Gee  and  we  followed  their 
trail  as  rapidly  as  possible.  It  was  but  a  short  time  until  we 
heard  two  shots  and  in  a  few  minutes  afterwards  we  saw 
Rawlins  and  Dunn  coming  towards  us  with  the  greatest  speed. 
I  knewT  then  they  had  shot  at  the  bear  and  had  wounded  him 
and  he  was  following  them.  I  said  to  Sol  Gee,  who  was  a  sure 
shot,  that  I  would  drop  below  the  trail  and  attract  the  atten- 
tion of  the  bear  as  he  passed,  and  if  I  fired  and  missed  he  must 
be  sure  in  his  shot  or  the  bear  would  get  me. 

As  Rawlins  and  Dunn  came  up  I  saw  the  bear  was  close 
to  them,  and  I  drew  the  bear's  attention,  and  he  turned  to- 
wards me,  giving  me  a  very  good  shot,  but  I  hit  him  a  little  too 
far  back,  but  did  not  stop  him  and  he  made  for  me.  Gee  waited 
until  he  got  him  face  to  face  and  then  shot  and  hit  him  between 
the  eyes,  and  dropped  him.  He  was  one  of  the  largest  grizzlies 
I  ever  saw.  We  gave  the  hide  and  claws  to  Rawlins  and  his 
friends. 

General  Rawlins,  who  was  a  great  stickler  in  the  army 
for  obeying  orders  and  who  was  sometimes  very  strong  in  his 
language,  turned  to  me  and,  in  his  most  emphatic  language, 
said  we  ought  to  have  let  the  bear  get  them  for  their  disobeying 
my  orders,  but  that  he  was  not  to  blame.  It  was  Major  Dunn, 
who  was  crazy  to  kill  a  grizzly,  and  he  was  fool  enough  to 
let  him  try  it. 

When  we  reached  the  South  Pass  there  had  been  gold 
discovered  just  north  in  what  was  known  as  the  Miner's  De- 
light mines.  The  arrival  of  such  a  party  with  so  distinguished 
a  person  as  General  Rawlins  drew  immediate  attention  to  us 
and  we  were  given  a  lunch  and  a  great  deal  of  consideration. 
Our  guide,  Sol  Gee,  when  he  got  to  the  towns  was  apt  to  drink 
too  much,  and  when  we  left  after  our  lunch  in  the  afternoon 
I  could  not  find  him,  and  I  sent  Major  Dunn  to  hunt  him  up. 
I  told  Dunn  under  no  circumstances  to  let  us  get  more  than 
two  miles  away  before  he  joined  us,  because  I  knew  the  Indians 
were  in  the  valley  of  the  Sweetwater  and  had  been  doing  con- 
siderable depredation.  We  moved  on  and  I  thought  no  more 
about  Dunn  or  Gee  until  we  had  gone  eight  or  ten  miles  when 


THE   CIVIL  ENGINEER   IN  AN  EARLY   DAY  115 

I  discovered  they  were  not  with  us.  It  was  nearly  night  and 
we  went  into  camp.  I  had  discovered  fresh  Indian  signs  and 
I  knew  they  were  watching  us  and  it  made  me  very  anxious 
for  the  safety  of  Dunn  and  Gee.  I  took  half  a  dozen  of  the 
best  mounted  cavalry  with  me  and  went  back  supposing  they 
were  still  at  the  miner's  camp. 

I  had  not  gone  more  than  three  or  four  miles  when  shots 
came  flying  at  us  from  the  boulders  in  the  road  ahead.  I 
thought  it  was  Indians  and  told  Guide  Adams,  who  was  with 
me,  to  seek  cover  and  try  to  communicate  with  them.  When 
he  called,  Gee  answered,  and  when  we  rode  up  to  them  we 
found  Dunn  and  Gee  behind  the  rocks,  thinking  that  we  were 
Indians.  Gee  had  told  Dunn  when  he  heard  us  coming  that 
their  only  salvation  was  to  get  to  cover  and  fire  at  us,  and  that 
in  the  night  it  would  probably  scare  the  Indians  away. 

I  asked  Dunn  why  he  had  not  obeyed  my  orders.  He  said 
that  when  he  found  Gee  he  was  not  able  to  travel,  and,  of 
course,  like  a  good  soldier,  he  could  not  leave  him.  After  he 
got  Gee  sobered  up  they  waited  until  dark,  hoping  they  could 
make  camp  without  being  discovered  by  the  Indians. 

As  we  moved  down  the  Valley  of  the  Sweetwater  we  met 
one  or  two  of  the  mountain  men,  who  informed  us  that  there 
was  a  band  of  Sioux  in  the  Seminoe  Gap  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Sweetwater.  I  knew  these  were  the  Indians  that  had  been 
doing  the  mischief  all  the  summer  and  I  was  anxious  to  catch 
and  punish  them.  Therefore  I  arranged  for  our  cavalry  to 
go  around  the  Seminoe  Mountains  and  cut  them  off  or  attack 
them  as  we  drove  them  through  the  gap  towards  the  south. 
I  was  certain  they  had  not  discovered  us  and  we  moved  the 
next  morning  very  early,  but  the  cavalry  failed  to  make  con- 
nections. The  Indian  scouts  saw  us  and  got  word  to  the 
Indian  camp  and  they  got  away  to  our  great  disappointment. 

After  we  got  through  the  gap  going  south  we  discovered 
a  small  band  of  buffalo  and  General  Rawlins  was  very  anxious 
to  kill  some  of  them,  so  I  took  him  and  about  a  dozen  of  the 
best  mounted  cavalry  and  the  guides  and  moved  in  towards 
the  North  Platte  so  as  to  get  to  the  leeward  of  the  buffalo  and 
also  have  them  between  us  and  the  train.  I  left  strict  orders 
with  the  train  if  they  saw  any  smoke  signs  for  the  troops  to 


116  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION  PACIFIC 

immediately  come  to  us.  I  was  suspicious  by  the  action  of  the 
buffalo  that  there  might  be  Indians  hunting  them.  We  had 
passed  along  about  five  miles  and  gotten  well  to  the  leeward 
of  the  buffalo  without  their  discovering  us,  when  all  of  a 
sudden  I  saw  a  band  of  Indians  hidden  on  a  small  stream 
watching  us.  I  knew  that  meant  trouble,  and  I  immediately 
prepared  for  them  and  made  a  sign  by  setting  a  fire  on  the 
ridge  for  our  cavalry  to  come  to  us.  The  Indians,  seeing  this, 
thought  I  was  trapping  them  instead  of  their  trapping  me, 
and  after  following  us  for  a  time  got  out,  and  we  not  only  lost 
the  buffalo,  but  the  Indians  also. 

In  the  winter  of  1867-68  the  end  of  our  track  was  at 
Cheyenne.  During  that  winter  there  had  assembled  there  a 
very  large  number  of  people,  possibly  it  was  the  greatest 
gambling  place  ever  established  on  the  plains,  and  it  was  full 
of  desperate  characters.  The  town  of  Cheyenne  we  had 
claimed,  laid  out,  and  leased  the  lots  to  the  occupants,  and 
organized  the  local  government.  There  was  then  no  title  to  be 
obtained  to  the  town,  but  we  treated  this  as  all  the  towns, 
claiming  it  for  the  company,  laying  it  out  into  town  lots  and 
not  allowing  anyone  to  locate  there  without  taking  an  agree- 
ment from  us  allowing  them  to  occupy  it  and  agreeing  to  deed 
it  to  them  when  we  got  a  title. 

There  had  been  established  there,  by  the  Government,  Fort 
D.  A.  Russell,  some  two  or  three  miles  north  of  the  railroad 
track,  and  there  was  in  command,  General  J.  D.  Stevenson, 
who  had  served  with  me  during  the  Civil  War.  In  my  absence 
these  desperate  characters  got  together,  held  a  meeting  and 
jumped  the  town,  refusing  to  recognize  the  authorities  we 
had  put  over  the  town  or  in  any  way  to  comply  with  our 
orders.  They  had  commenced  robbing  our  trainmen  and  com- 
mitting other  depredations  that  I  knew  we  must  stop  or  lose 
all  control  of  the  railroad  forces  at  the  end  of  the  track.  I  im- 
mediately wired  General  Stevenson,  calling  his  attention  to  the 
condition  of  affairs  and  asking  him  to  use  his  troops  to  bring 
about  order  and  a  recognition  of  our  authority,  and  while  he 
had  no  legal  right  in  the  matter  he  turned  out  his  troops  as 
skirmishers  and  drove  every  citizen  in  the  town  to  a  mile  or  so 
south  of  the  track  and  then  held  a  parley  with  them.   He  told 


THE   CIVIL  ENGINEER  IN  AN  EARLY  DAY  117 

them  that  until  they  were  ready  to  comply  with  the  orders  and 
recognize  the  authority  of  the  railroad  company  they  should 
not  go  back  to  their  property;  that  really  the  land  belonged 
to  the  United  States  and  the  railway  was  occupying  it  under 
the  Government's  charter.  This  brought  them  immediately 
to  terms  and  they  immediately  made  peace,  and  were  allowed 
to  come  back  to  town  and  we  afterwards  had  no  trouble  with 
them.  I  recite  this  only  as  showing  the  great  aid  the  Govern- 
ment always  gave  us  in  building  the  road. 

In  the  year  of  1868  there  was  a  great  competition  between 
the  Union  Pacific  building  west  and  the  Southern  Pacific  build- 
ing east.  The  Union  Pacific  desired  to  at  least  reach  Humboldt 
Wells  and  the  Central  Pacific's  great  desire  was  to  reach 
Ogden.  The  Union  Pacific  continued  its  work  over  the  Wasatch 
Mountains  throughout  the  winter,  which  was  a  very  cold  and 
snowy  one,  and  it  cost  us  as  much  to  blast  the  earth  as  it  did 
the  rock,  we  paying  as  high  for  earth  work  as  $3  a  cubic  yard. 

We  laid  the  track  over  the  Wasatch  Kange  in  the  dead 
of  winter  on  top  of  snow  and  ice,  and  I  have  seen  a  whole  train 
of  cars,  track  and  all  slide  off  the  bank  and  into  the  ditch  as 
a  result  of  a  thaw  and  the  ice  that  covered  the  banks.  We 
built  almost  as  rapidly  through  the  winter  as  we  did  during 
the  summer,  notwithstanding  the  short  cold  days  and  long 
nights,  but  it  was  at  an  immense  cost.  We  estimated  that  the 
work  during  that  winter  made  an  extra  cost  to  the  road  of 
at  least  $10,000,000. 

The  success  of  the  engineers  in  the  surveying  and  con- 
structing of  this  road  was  due  mostly  to  their  natural  courage 
and  ability.  One  of  the  instructions  given  a  party  when  put 
into  the  field  was,  that  the  chief  of  the  party  must  absolutely 
command  it,  and  at  all  times  be  ready  to  fight.  Another  was 
the  importance,  of  never  slacking  their  vigilance  no  matter 
where  they  were,  never  being  off  their  guard,  and  all  those  who 
obeyed  these  orders  generally  took  their  parties  through.  Those 
who  did  not  were  soon  relieved  in  the  field  or  were  killed  by  an 
attack  of  Indians.  Then  again,  these  engineers  were  all  men  of 
ability,  every  one  of  them,  as  far  as  I  know,  has  risen  to  distinc- 
tion either  in  his  own  profession  or  in  some  line  of  business.  I 
know  of  only  two  of  the  chiefs  of  parties  who  are  still  living. 


118  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 


One,  F.  S.  Hodges,  is  a  bachelor  in  Boston,  who  occasionally 
goes  out  to  Salt  Lake  City  and  gathers  together  some  of  his  old 
party,  giving  them  a  taste  of  their  old  experience  by  putting 
them  back  into  camp  again  with  a  camp  dinner,  and  ending 
with  a  great  banquet  at  some  prominent  hotel.  One  of  his  party, 
Mr.  James  E.  Maxwell,  first  undertook  to  locate  the  line  across 
Salt  Lake  where  the  road  is  now  built.  When  I  sent  him  out  I 
gave  him  Captain  Stanbury's  soundings.  The  Mormons  built 
him  a  boat,  he  put  his  party  into  it  and  while  he  was  making  the 
sounding  of  the  lake,  a  terrific  gale  came  up  that  swamped  his 
boat  and  came  very  near  drowning  him  and  his  party,  and  he 
reported  to  me  that  the  lake  was  fourteen  feet  higher  than 
when  Stanbury  sounded  it  in  1849,  and  it  is  a  singular  fact  that 
it  was  then  at  its  highest  known  level,  for  from  1870  until  1900 
it  continually  fell,  and  when  the  Union  Pacific  built  the  line 
across  the  lake  it  was  eleven  feet  lower  than  when  the  original 
survey  was  made.  The  depth  of  the  lake,  the  weight  of  the 
water,  and  the  cost  of  building  was  beyond  us,  and  we  were 
forced  north  of  the  lake  and  had  to  put  in  the  high  grades 
crossing  Promontory  Ridge. 

The  other  is  Mr.  James  E.  Maxwell,  living  now  in  Newark, 
Delaware.  He  distinguished  himself  especially  in  the  building 
of  the  Central  Railroad  in  Peru,  crossing  the  mountains  at  an 
elevation  of  15,666  feet  above  the  sea,  the  highest  railroad  in 
the  world.  It  is  of  standard  gauge.  Mr.-  Maxwell  is  still  able 
to  handle  any  engineering  problem  presented  to  him. 

The  organization  for  the  construction  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Eailroad  was  upon  a  military  basis,  nearly  every  man  upon 
it  had  been  in  the  Civil  War;  the  heads  of  most  of  the  engi- 
neering parties  and  all  chiefs  of  the  construction  forces  were 
officers  in  the  Civil  War ;  the  chief  of  the  track  laying  force, 
General  Casement,  had  been  a  distinguished  division  com- 
mander in  the  Civil  War,  and  at  any  moment  I  could  call  into 
the  field  a  thousand  men,  well  officered,  ready  to  meet  any 
crisis  or  any  emergency.  There  was  no  law  in  the  country,  and 
no  court.  We  laid  out  the  towns,  officered  them,  kept  peace, 
and  everything  went  on  smoothly  and  in  harmony.  Two  or 
three  times  at  the  end  of  our  tracks  a  rough  crowd  would 


THE   CIVIL  ENGINEER  IN  AN   EARLY  DAY  119 

gather  and   dispute   our   authority,   but   they  were   soon   dis- 
posed of. 

I  remember  one  incident  when  I  was  west  near  Salt  Lake 
receiving  a  despatch  that  a  crowd  of  gamblers  had  taken  our 
terminal  point  at  Julesburg  and  refused  to  obey  the  local 
officers  we  had  appointed  over  it.  I  wired  General  Casement 
to  take  back  his  track  force,  clean  the  place  up  and  sustain 
the  officers.  When  I  returned  to  Julesburg,  I  asked  General 
Casement  what  he  had  done.  He  replied,  "I  will  show  you." 
He  took  me  up  to  a  little  rise  just  beyond  Julesburg  and  showed 
me  a  small  graveyard,  saying,  "General,  they  all  died  in  their 
boots,  but  brought  peace." 

The  work  of  the  engineers  on  the  Union  Pacific  was  a 
very  masterful  one.  In  the  beginning  they  had  no  reliable 
maps  nor  any  knowledge  of  the  country,  and  they  explored 
it  until  they  obtained  a  line  across  the  country  over  which  one 
locomotive,  then  as  well  as  now,  could  haul  as  many  cars  over 
the  line  as  two  engines  on  any  other  of  the  trans-continental 
lines.  They  worked  summer  and  winter,  rain  or  shine.  My 
yearly  report  upon  the  completion  of  the  road  describes  better 
perhaps  than  I  can  now  what  they  accomplished,  and  is  as 
follows : 

"They  occupied  the  country  extending  from  the  Missouri 
River  to  the  California  State  line,  and  covering  a  width  of  200 
miles,  north  and  south,  and  on  the  general  direction  of  the 
forty-second  parallel  of  latitude,  some  15,000  miles  of  instru- 
mental lines  have  been  run,  and  over  25,000  miles  of  recon- 
noissances  made. 

"In  1863  and  1864,  preliminary  surveys  were  inaugurated, 
but  in  1866  the  country  was  systematically  occupied ;  and  day 
and  night,  summer  and  winter  the  explorations  were  pushed 
forward  through  dangers  and  hardships  that  very  few,  at  this 
day,  appreciate,  as  every  mile  had  to  be  run  within  range  of 
the  musket,  as  there  was  not  a  moment's  security.  In  making 
surveys,  numbers  of  our  men,  some  of  them  the  ablest  and 
most  promising,  were  killed;  and  during  the  construction  our 
stock  was  run  off  by  the  hundred,  I  might  say,  by  the  thou- 
sand;  and  as  one  difficulty  after  another  arose  and  was  over- 


120  HOW  WE   BUILT   THE   UNION  PACIFIC 

come,   in  the   engineering,   running  and   construction  depart- 
ments, a  new  era  in  railroad  building  was  inaugurated. 

' '  Each  day  taught  us  lessons  by  which  we  profited  for  the 
next,  and  our  advances  and  improvements  in  the  art  of  railway 
construction  were  marked  by  the  progress  of  the  work,  forty 
miles  of  track  having  been  laid  in  1865,  240  in  1867,  and  260  in 
1868,  including  the  ascent  to  the  summit  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, at  an  elevation  of  8,235  feet  above  the  ocean;  and  dur- 
ing 1868  and  to  May  10,  1869,  555  miles,  all  exclusive  of  side 
and  temporary  tracks,  of  which  over  180  miles  were  built  in 
addition." 

At  Promontory  Point,  north  of  Salt  Lake,  Utah,  on  May 
10,  1869,  gathered  there  from  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific,  the 
men  who  made  possible  this  great  work.  They  were  the  few 
bold  spirits  who  backed  the  enterprise  with  their  fortunes, 
their  credit,  and  their  reputation.  They  spent  many  millions 
to  meet  the  clamor  and  demand  of  our  whole  nation  for  speed, 
and  constructed  a  railroad  2,000  miles  long  in  three  years, 
when  their  own  interests,  their  charter  and  the  Government 
allowed  them  ten  years  to  complete  the  work.  So  far  as  it 
was  possible  for  human  to  see,  as  a  commercial  problem,  it  had 
few,  if  any,  advocates.  It  was  simply  considered  a  military 
necessity.  Some  day  these  men  will  stand  in  civil  life  like  our 
leaders  in  the  Civil  War.  The  engineers  and  the  workmen 
stood  in  groups  watching  the  preparations  for  the  driving  of 
the  golden  spike  which  should  tie  together  with  iron  bands 
this  continent.  The  locomoties  from  the  east  and  from  the  west 
were  run  together  and  each  engineer  broke  a  bottle  of  cham- 
pagne on  their  comrade's  machine,  and  a  great  glorification 
of  the  event  was  celebrated  all  over  the  country.  On  that  day, 
General  Sherman,  not  forgetting  the  engineers  and  pioneers 
of  this  work,  sent  me  this  despatch: 

"Washington,  May  11,  1869. 
"General  G.  M.  Dodge: 

•  "In  common  with  millions,  I  sat  yesterday  and  heard  the 
mystic  taps  of  the  telegraphic  battery  announce  the  nailing  of 
the  last  spike  in  the  great  Pacific  road.  Indeed,  am  I  its  friend  1 
Yea.   Yet,  am  I  to  be  a  part  of  it,  for  as  early  as  1854  I  was 


THE  CIVIL  ENGINEER  IN  AN  EARLY   DAY  121 

vice  president  of  the  effort  begun  in  San  Francisco,  under  the 
contract  of  Robinson,  Seymour  &  Co.  As  soon  as  General 
Thomas  makes  certain  preliminary  inspections  in  his  new  com- 
mand on  the  Pacific,  I  will  go  out  and,  I  need  not  say,  will 
have  different  facilities  from  that  of  1846,  when  the  only  way 
to  California  was  by  sail  around  Cape  Horn,  taking  our  ships 
196  days.  All  honor  to  you,  to  Durant,  to  Jack  and  Dan  Case- 
ment, to  Reed  and  the  thousands  of  brave  fellows  who  have 
wrought  out  this  glorious  problem,  spite  of  changes,  storms, 
and  even  doubts  of  the  incredulous,  and  all  the  obstacles  you 
have  now  happily  surmounted. 

"W.  T.  SHERMAN,  General." 

How  well  all  did  their  work  I  leave  to  the  distinguished 
commission  of  engineers  appointed  by  Act  of  Congress  to 
examine,  review  and  report  upon  the  completion  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad,  which  is  as  follows : 

"Taken  as  a  whole,  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  has  been 
well  constructed.  The  general  route  for  the  line  is  exceedingly 
well  chosen,  crossing  the  Rocky  Mountain  Ranges  at  some  of 
the  fost  favorable  passes  on  the  continent,  and  possessing  capa- 
bilities for  easy  grades  and  favorable  alignments  unsurpassed 
by  any  other  railway  line  on  similarly  elevated  grounds.  The 
energy  and  perseverance  with  which  the  work  has  been  urged 
forward,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  it  has  been  executed 
are  without  parallel  in  history.  In  the  grandeur  and  magnitude 
of  the  undertaking,  it  has  never  been  equaled,  and  no  other  line 
compares  with  this  in  the  arid  and  barren  character  of  the 
country  it  traverses,  giving  rise  to  unusual  inconveniences  and 
difficulties,  and  imposing  the  necessity  of  obtaining  almost 
every  requisite  of  material,  of  labor,  and  supplies  for  its  con- 
struction, from  the  initial  point  of  its  commencement. 

"G.  K.  WARDEN,  Brevet  Major-Gen.,  U.  S.  A., 
"J.  BLICKENSDERFER,  Jr.,  Civil  Engineer, 
"JAMES  BARNES,  Civil  Engineer, 
"Special  Commissioners  Union  Pacific  Railroad." 

In  the  last  five  years  the  Union  Pacific  and  the  Southern 
Pacific  have  been  virtually  reconstructed  under  the  able  man- 
agement of  Mr.  E.  H.  Harriman.  The  Union  Pacific  in  bringing 


122  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC 

its  grades  to  a  maximum  of  forty-seven  feet  per  mile  excepting 
the  eighty-foot  grade  rising  the  mountains  from  the  east  at 
Cheyenne,  and  the  eighty-foot  grade  rising  the  Wasatch  Range 
west  from  the  town  of  Echo,  and  in  shortening  the  line  some 
thirty  miles,  has  spent  almost,  if  not  fully,  as  much  money  as  it 
took  to  construct  the  road,  and  the  distinguished  engineer  who 
had  charge  of  that  work  is  now  the  chief  engineer  of  the  Rock 
Island  system  and  he  pays  this  tribute  to  the  engineers  and 
builders  of  the  original  line  : 

"It  may  appear  to  those  unfamiliar  with  the  character 
of  the  country  that  the  great  saving  in  distance  and  reduction 
of  grade  would  stand  as  a  criticism  of  the  work  of  the  pioneer 
engineers  who  made  the  original  location  of  the  road.  Such  is 
not  the  case.  The  changes  made  have  been  expensive  and  could 
be  warranted  only  by  the  volume  of  traffic  handled  at  the 
present  day.  Too  much  credit  cannot  be  given  to  General 
G.  M.  Dodge  and  his  assistants.  They  studied  their  task  thor- 
oughly and  performed  it  well.  Limited  by  law  to  a  maximum 
gradient  of  116  feet  to  the  mile,  not  compensated  for  curva- 
ture, they  held  it  down  to  about  ninety  feet  per  mile.  Taking 
into  consideration  the  existing  conditions  thirty-five  years  ago ; 
lack  of  maps  of  the  country,  hostility  of  the  Indians,  which 
made  the  United  States  troops  necessary  for  the  protection 
of  surveying  parties,  difficult  transportation,  excessive  cost 
of  labor,  uncertainty  as  to  probable  volume  of  traffic,  limited 
amount  of  money  and  necessity  to  get  the  road  built  as  soon 
as  possible,  it  can  be  said,  with  all  our  present  knowledge  of 
the  topography  of  the  country,  that  the  line  was  located  with 
very  great  skill." 

Since  the  public  statements  of  Mr.  Harriman  and  this 
tribute  by  Mr.  Berry,  we  have  heard  no  more  talk  of  the 
unnecessary  miles  of  road  that  were  built  for-  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  the  Government  subsidy. 

Upon  completion  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  I  was 
called  upon  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  interests  to  organize 
the  construction  company  and  build  the  Texas  Pacific  Rail- 
road from  New  Orleans  to  San  Diego,  California,  and  in  1871 
we  marshalled  our  forces  and  covered  the  line  with  engineers 
from  Marshall,  Texas,  to  San  Diego,  California.    We  were  in 


THE   CIVIL  ENGINEER  IN  AN  EARLY   DAY  123 


the  same  condition  in  this  work  that  we  were  on  the  Union 
Pacific;  without  any  railroad  connection,  depending  upon  the 
Red  River  for  our  supplies  and  materials,  and,  of  course,  that 
river  went  dry,  but  nevertheless,  the  engineers  pushed  on  into 
the  country  where  they  had  the  Indians,  among  many  other 
difficulties,  to  contend  with.  I  put  Hurd's  party  into  the  most 
difficult  Indian  country.  He  had  not  been  there  very  long 
before  I  received  a  letter  from  the  Governor  of  the  State  tell- 
ing me  that  Hurd  had  attacked  and  killed  some  of  the  friendly 
bands  of  Indians  out  at  what  was  known  as  Sulphur  Springs  at 
the  foot  of  the  Staked  Plains.  Hurd  was  too  far  away  for  me 
to  communicate  with  him,  but  I  sent  him  the  Governor's  letter. 
He  was  a  man  of  few  words ;  his  work  always  told  for  itself  in 
his  maps  and  profiles,  and  he  answered  the  Governor's  letter  in 
a  very  short  response,  which  he  sent  me  to  approve  and  for- 
ward. In  it  he  stated  that  the  Sulphur  Springs  was  the  only 
water  within  fifty  miles  of  him,  when  he  reached  there  it  was 
held  by  the  Indians  and  they  refused  to  let  him  have  any  water 
or  allow  him  to  approach  the  springs.  They  would  not  even 
sell  it  to  him,  and  he  said,  "Of  course,  I  took  the  springs.  I 
don't  know  whether  I  hurt  any  Indians  or  not,  and  I  do  not 
care,  but  I  knew  better  than  to  go  back  to  General  Dodge  and 
tell  him  'that  I  had  been  forced  to  abandon  my  survey  by  two 
or  three  hundred  barebacked  Indians  without  fighting  them." 
That  was  the  last  I  heard  of  that  complaint. 

On  the  line  through  Arizona  we  had  a  very  noted  engi- 
neer, Captain  R.  W.  Petriken.  He  was  a  graduate  of  West 
Point  and  had  been  in  the  engineering  corps  during  the  war. 
He  resigned  and  took  service  with  the  railroads,  intending  to 
follow  railroading  as  a  business,  believing  there  was  greater 
possibility  in  it  for  him  than  in  the  army,  but  he  was  killed 
after  a  long  fight  with  a  band  of  Mexican  Indians. 

In  building  the  Texas  Pacific  we  went  through  an  epidemic 
of  cholera  and  one  of  yellow  fever,  and  were  subject  at  every 
town  and  every  county  line  to  shotgun  quarantine,  and  not- 
withstanding that,  most  of  the  engineers  were  from  the  North, 
they  all  stayed  on  the  work. 

I  remember  in  1873  when  we  were  rushing  to  close  the 
tracks  in  Texas,  coming  from  the  east  and  west  to  save  our 


12  4  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION  PACIFIC 

land  grant,  the  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  was  upon  us,  and 
every  morning  those  of  us  who  were  at  the  end  of  the  track 
could  see  numerous  corpses  taken  out  of  the  working  gangs 
and  buried  in  the  dump,  and  it  took  a  brave,  determined  man 
of  great  moral  courage,  who  was  under  no  obligations,  except 
that  of  duty,  to  stay  and  fight  it  out. 

I  remember  one  young  engineer  who  was  setting  grade 
and  centers  for  the  track  layers.  He  lived  in  the  cars  that 
housed  the  convicts  that  were  laying  the  track,  who,  no  matter 
how  much  they  wanted  to  leave,  could  not;  he  went  out  on 
his  work  promptly  every  morning  and  could  see  the  progress 
of  the  fever  by  the  number  of  convicts  taken  out  and  buried 
in  the  dump,  and  that  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  when  it 
would  have  him  in  its  grip.  I  thought  it  possible  he  might 
leave  us,  so  one  morning  I  walked  out  and  spoke  to  him,  asking 
him  how  he  and  his  men  were  feeling.  He  said  very  quietly 
they  had  considered  the  situation,  and  they  proposed  to  stay 
on  the  job  until  we  connected  the  tracks,  but  he  stated :  "Then 
I  shall  start  on  the  first  train  for' God's  country  and  never 
shall  come  back  to  this."  I  thanked  him  for  his  determination 
to  stay  and  he  stated  that  he  had  been  employed  on  the  job 
for  the  season  and  he  did  not  propose  to  run  because  some 
others  had;  he  was  a  specimen  of  the  engineers  who  went 
South  with  us.  A  great  many  of  them  had  the  yellow  fever, 
some  of  them  died,  but  they  all  showed  an  esprit  de  corp  and 
an  interest  in  the  enterprise  that  would  be  a  good  object  les- 
son to  many  who  are  on  similar  work  today. 

As  soon  as  the  tracks  were  joined,  I  gave  all  the  engineers 
who  had  come  from  the  North  a  leave  of  absence,  but  very 
few  of  them  took  advantage  of  it. 

During  the  years  from  1870  to  1874  the  line  was  deter- 
mined and  located  through  to  California.  Work  was  com- 
menced at  San  Diego  and  some  500  miles  was  built  during 
that  time  in  Texas,  but  the  Jay  Cook  failure  stopped  us,  and 
it  was  not  completed  through  to  California  until  1883,  and 
today  three  of  the  great  railroads  of  the  country  occupy  the 
line  that  was  intended  at  that  time  for  only  one.  They  are 
the  Texas  Pacific,  the  Southern  Pacific,  and  the  Santa  Fe.  It  is 
a  singular  fact  that  the  same  engineers  and  the  same  foremen 


THE  CIVIL  ENGINEER  IN  AN  EARLY  DAY  125 

who  had  joined  the  tracks  at  Promontory  Point  in  1869  met 
on  the  plains  at  Sierra  Blanco,  Texas,  in  1883,  and  joined  there 
the  tracks  that  united  the  second  continental  line  across  the 
continent,  but  under  entirely  different  circumstances.  There 
were  no  bands,  no  crowds,  no  speeches,  and  no  champagne. 
It  was  simply  the  engineers  and  foremen  of  the  track  laying 
forces  that  shook  hands  at  this  great  event,  and  it  created 
very  little  notice  or  comment. 

There  has  been  a  general  belief  throughout  the  country 
that  it  was  a  very  easy  problem  to  build  a  railroad,  that  the 
railroads  were  over-capitalized,  which  recent  investigation  has 
demonstrated  to  be  untrue.  In  my  travels  I  have  seen  men 
riding  in  a  Pullman  car  that  carried  a  valet,  a  maid,  a  porter, 
and  a  conductor,  which  these  people  generally  kept  busy  all 
the  time,  look  out  of  the  window  and  express  the  opinion  that 
it  was  easy  work  or  virtually  no  work  to  build  a  railroad 
through  the  country  they  were  passing,  and  make  comments 
on  what  it  represented  and  what  it  should  cost,  and  I  often 
used  to  think  as  I  listened  to  them,  if  they  had  the  experience 
of  the  builders ;  first  as  chief  of  a  party  to  spy  out  a  line,  per- 
haps alone  in  an  Indian  country,  then  followed  by  the  young 
engineer,  carrying  a  rifle  on  one  shoulder  and  a  transit  on  the 
other,  camping  where  his  day's  work  ended;  then  the  bold 
spirits  who  furnished  the  money  to  first  construct  the  road, 
that  would  need  probably  to  be  carried  ten  or  twenty  years 
before  it  brought  any  income,  and  then  by  the  operating  de- 
parment  who  had  to  re-construct  it  two  or  three  times  and  put 
millions  upon  millions  into  it  to  bring  its  commercial  business 
and  the  luxury  of  its  transportation  up  to  our  date,  he  would 
take  an  entirely  different  view  of  the  enterprise. 

I  thank  God  that  the  criticisms  of  the  years  have  finally 
aroused  the  railroad  world  to  educate  the  people  and  demon- 
strate to  them  what  the  transportation  of  this  country  has 
cost  in  lives,  laborand  money,  and  what  benefits  it  has  brought 
to  the  nation. 


ADDRESS  AT  BANQUET  OF  THE  COMMERCIAL  CLUB, 
OMAHA,  NOVEMBER  10,  1906,  IN  HONOR  OF  MAJOR- 
GENERAL  G.  M.  DODGE  AND  MRS.  JOHN  A.  LOGAN. 


At  a  banquet  given  by  the  Commercial  Club  at  Omaha  on 
November  10,  1906,  in  honor  of  Major-General  Grenville  M. 
Dodge  and  Mrs.  John  A.  Logan,  in  replying  to  remarks  of 
Doctor  George  L.  Miller,  General  Dodge  made  the  following 
response : 

It  must  be  evident  to  all  present  how  embarrassing  it  is 
to  me.  and  how  difficult  it  is  to  express  my  thanks  for  all  the 
kind  words  and  compliments  that  have  been  paid  me.  Omaha 
and  Nebraska  have  always  had  kindly  feelings  towards  me, 
and  never  let  an  opportunity  pass  to  show  it,  and  when  I  see 
surrounding  me  so  many  of  my  friends  and  supporters  in  my 
young  days,  when  I  was  struggling  here  to  build  and  develop 
an  empire,  I  feel  that  it  is  impossible  to  thank  you  as  you 
deserve. 

You  must  appreciate  the  fact  that  when  two  old  friends 
like  Doctor  Miller  and  myself  get  together,  that  as  the  years 
go  by  the  appreciation  of  each  other  grows  in  geometrical 
progression.  The  credit  that  he  gives  me  belongs  largely  to 
others,  who  spent  their  time,  their  brains,  their  money  and 
their  credit  in  developing  the  country  west  of  the  Lakes. 

As  you  all  know,  since  I  was  19  years  old  my  entire  life 
has  been  spent  in  the  upbuilding  and  development  of  the 
country  west  of  the  Lakes,  and  in  the  line  of  my  profession  it 
has  been  my  great  good  fortune  to  know  and  be  with  the 
groups  of  men  whose  time,  credit  and  fortunes  have  been 
spent  for  the  increasing  of  population  and  in  making  an  em- 
pire, where,  when  I  began,  there  were  only  50,000  people  in 
Chicago,  and  not  many  more  than  that  from  there  west  to  the 
Pacific.  These  men  have  never  received  the  credit  they  were 
entitled  to.  I  have  in  mind  four  groups  in  this  work,  and  I 
will  name  them. 

—127— 


128  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION  PACIFIC     r 

The  first  were  Farnam  &  Sheffield,  who  built  the  first 
road  west  of  Chicago  to  the  Mississippi  River,  one  of  whom 
you  have  honored  by  giving  his  name  to  one  of  your  principal 
thoroughfares.  On  the  completion  of  this  work  Mr.  T.  C. 
Durant  joined  Mr.  Farnam  in  building  the  Mississippi  &  Mis- 
souri Railway,  now  the  Rock  Island,  across  Iowa. 

The  next  were  the  Ameses  and  their  New  England  fol- 
lowing, and  to  them  monuments  should  be  raised,  as  it  was  to 
their  nerve  and  the  use  of  their  unlimited  credit,  that  is  most 
due  the  success  of  the  Union  Pacific,  and  I  never  look  back 
upon  their  work  that  I  do  not  consider  the  Act  of  Congress, 
which  drove  Oakes  Ames  out  of  their  halls  and  to  his  death, 
one  of  the  most  unjust  acts  ever  passed  by  Congress,  when 
he  should  have  had  their  thanks  and  the  credit  due  him,  and 
which  some  day  he  will  receive  for  his  unfailing  support  of 
us  all  who  were  engaged  on  that  great  work.  Very  few  of 
you  know  how  many  times  we  were  close  to  failure  and  he 
saved  us.  I  remember  once  when  I  wrote  Oakes  Ames  that 
we  must  have  money  or  the  work  would  stop,  that  he  an- 
swered to  go  ahead,  that  it  should  not  stop  if  it  took  the 
shovel  shop  to  keep  it  going.  Again  when  the  question  came 
whether  the  credit  of  the  company  should  be  impaired  or  that 
the  standing  and  credit  of  the  Ameses  should  suffer,  he  said: 
"Stand  by  the  company  and  let  the  Ameses  take  care  of  them- 
selves," and  their  commercial  standing  and  credit  did  suffer. 
It  was  these  men,  aided  by  Dillon,  Dnrant  and  their  following 
that  were  the  pioneers  along  the  forty-second  parallel  of  lat- 
itude and  to  whom  our  great  prosperity  today  is  mostly  due. 

The  next  group  was  headed  by  Thomas  A.  Scott  in  that 
great  development  of  the  Southwest,  and  in  projecting  and 
partially  building  the  Southern  line  to  the  Pacific.  He  was 
surrounded  and  supported  by  that  remarkable  body  of  men 
identified  with  the  interests  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railway.  They 
were  Thompson,  Roberts,  "Walters,  Houston,  Baird,  McCullough 
and  others,  the  descendants  of  whom  are  prominent  in  all  the 
affairs  of  the  Pennsylvania  today.  In  the  three  years'  work 
on  that  line  they  had  spent  $10,000,000  without  selling  a  bond 
or  share  of  stock.  The  Jay  Cook  failure  came  and  halted  the 
work.   Scott  was  in  England  and  had  raised  the  money  to  take 


ADDRESS  AT  COMMERCIAL  CLUB  BANQUET  129 

us  to  the  Pacific  and  the  papers  were  waiting  a  final  signature, 
when  like  a  clap  of  thunder  out  of  a  clear  sky  came  the  failure 
of  Jay  Cook  and  virtually  put  the  whole  crowd  in  bank- 
ruptcy. We  were  all  called  to  Philadelphia.  I  owed  more  than 
a  million  of  dollars  in  Texas  and  the  shock  was  so  far-reaching 
that  it  stunned  everyone.  I  remember  this  group  of  men  stayed 
all  day  and  nearly  all  night  in  Scott's  room  at  the  Philadelphia 
headquarters  and  considered  and  discussed  the  situation.  The 
question  was,  shall  we  save  the  property  or  ourselves?  I  told 
them  of  the  outcome  of  a  similar  meeting  when  Ames  said, 
"Save  the  road  and  let  the  individuals  go  to  the  wall,"  and 
Scott  answered  that  is  what  we  will  do,  and  these  men  sat 
down  and  assumed  the  entire  debt  of  $10,000,000  or  more,  put- 
ting out  their  individual  notes,  known  as  the  five-name  paper 
and  the  three-name  paper,  part  of  us  signing  the  five-name 
paper  and  the  more  wealthy  and  those  of  better  credit  the 
three-name  paper.  This  was  a  pretty  bold  movement,  when 
not  one  of  them  could  really  say  or  know  whether  at  that 
moment  he  was  worth  one  cent.  After  signing  these  notes  they 
distributed  them  to  each  one  of  us  to  take  them  to  such  finan- 
cial institutions  as  we  might  know  and  to  try  to  sell  them. 
One  million  was  assigned  to  me  of  the  five-name  paper,  of 
which  I  was  a  signer.  I  had  no  idea  where  I  could  raise  one 
cent  on  it.  I  thought  everyone  would  look  upon%us  and  our 
credit  as  I  knew  our  financial  condition  to  be  and  would  judge 
the  value  of  our  notes  accordingly.  I  took  mine  to  New  York 
City;  I  considered  it  to  be  the  hardest  and  most  uncertain 
problem  that  I  ever  had  to  solve.  T  had  in  New  York  a  long 
time  a  small  account  with  Gilman  &  Son,  prominent  private 
bankers.  I  called  on  them  as  soon  as  I  reached  New  York, 
and  met  Mr.  Gilman,  a  very  astute,  clear-headed,  calculating 
banker,  and  showed  him  the  paper.  He  read  the  five  names, 
looked  up  to  me  and  said,  "Why,  that  looks  like  pretty  good 
paper;  I  think  our  clients  would  like  to  have  some  of  it," 
and  asked  me  to  leave  it  with  him.  You  can  imagine  my  feel- 
ings, and  how  my  barometer  went  up.  I  immediately  handed 
over  to  him  the  million.  The  next  day  when  I  went  to  see 
him  he  stated  that  they  would  take  it  and  asked  if  I  could 
get  any  more.   I  saw  then  what  it  was  to  a  man  to  have  a  good 


130  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION  PACIFIC 

name,  a  good>business  standing  and  good  credit,  and  I  have 
never  forgotten  it.  That  paper  was  all  paid  off  before  it  was 
due.  Our  work  halted  then  in  Texas  from  1874  until  1880, 
when  Mr.  Scott  becoming  sick  induced  Jay  Gould  to  buy  his 
interest.  Mr.  Gould  and  his  following  then  took  hold  of  the 
property  and  built  from  that  time  on,  what  is  known  as  the 
Southwest  System,  some  10,000  miles  of  road.  He,  like  the 
rest  of  them,  planted  his  money  and  his  credit  to  build  up  and 
develop  a  partially-inhabited  country,  but  did  not  live  to  see 
the  full  fruition  of  his  plans,  but  his  children  have.  With 
Mr.  Gould  and  his  associates  I  was  connected  from  1874  to 
1884,  and  I  take  pleasure  in  paying  my  tribute  to  him  and 
giving  him  the  credit  he  is  entitled  to,  for  he  was  more  abused, 
slandered  and  vilified  than  all  the  rest  combined.  He  spent 
his  life  in  opening  up  a  vast  territory  to  the  new  population 
without  receiving  any  immediate  benefit  from  his  investment, 
but  it  proved  that  his  judgment  was  correct.  Personally,  I 
never  was  with  a  more  reliable  and  considerate  man  than 
Ja£  Gould.  I  spent  many,  many  millions  in  building  the  South- 
west System,  but  as  far  as  I  know,  I  never  had  a  dozen  letters 
from  him.  Everything  was  done  by  word  of  mouth  or  by 
telegram.  When  we  discussed  any  question  and  came  to  a 
conclusion  and  Mr.  Gould  said,  ''General,  we  will  go  ahead," 
or  do. this  or  that,  no  matter  what  it  meant  or  into  what  diffi- 
culties we  got,  I  never  had  doubts  as  to  where  Jay  Gould  would 
stand.  He  never  went  back  on  the  support  of  me  or  tried  to 
evade,  as  some  others  did,  the  responsibilities  he  had  assumed. 
When  the  projects  looked  unprofitable,  he  had  plenty  of  oppor- 
tunities to  avoid  great  losses,  but  he  stood  by,  no  matter  who 
deserted,  and  when  I  compare  where  he  put  his  brains  and 
millions  with  those  who  have  criticized  him  so  severely,  who 
would  not  invest  a  cent,  except  it  was  secured  and  brought 
a  safe  interest,  but  he  year  after  year  had  new  faith  in  the 
future  outcome  of  our  interest  in  the  West,  I  feel  it  was  to 
him  that  was  due  the  credit  instead  of  the  criticisms.  I  learned 
the  value  of  the  brains,  push  and  combinations  of  Jay  Gould, 
and  I  say  all  honor  to  him,  and  you  of  the  West  should  revere 
and  honor  his  work  and  name. 


ADDRESS  AT  COMMERCIAL  CLUB  BANQUET  131 

The  third  group  was  the  California  giants,  Huntington, 
Stanford,  Hopkins,  Crocker,  and  their  associates.  Their  work 
on  the  Pacific  was  a  duplicate  of  Ames,  Scott  and  Gould,  and 
though  at  times  we  were  in  sharp  competition,  in  long,  bitter 
fights,  I  had  the  personal  friendship  of  all  of  them.  Their 
leader  was  Huntington,  and  he  was  a  wonderful  man.  For 
years  we  were  in  sharp  competition,  but  you  may  hunt  the 
records  of  all  he  either  said  or  did  and  you  won't  find  a  word 
uttered  against  me.  He  always  spoke  in  the  highest  terms  of 
me,  even  when  it  hurt  his  own  case,  and  in  after  years  we 
were  close  friends.  He  was  a  great  man,  and  has  built  great 
monuments  to  himself  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  I  re- 
member, I  think  it  was  in  the  '80s  in  one  of  the  financial  panics, 
we  were  both  borrowing  large  sums  of  money  from  the  same 
bank  in  New  York.  The  companies  I  was  connected  with  were 
weak,  while  his  were  very  strong  financially,  and  when  the 
bank  called  upon  us  for  additional  security,  we  could  not 
always  put  it  up  promptly.  One  day  the  bank  called  upon  us 
for  quite  a  large  addition  to  what  we  had  up  for  one  of  our 
companies,  and  I  told  them  it  was  impossible  for  us  to  meet 
the  demand,  and  they  said  they  would  be  obliged  to  sell  out 
our  loans,  and  I  was  in  great  distress,  for  I  knew  it  meant 
bankruptcy  for  the  company.  They  said  that  when  they  called 
upon  Mr.  Huntington  for  additional  securities  he  would  bring 
down  double  for  what  they  asked.  That  evening  I  met  Mr. 
Huntington,  and  told  him  our  troubles,  and  what  the  bank 
said.  His  eyes  brightened.  He  said:  "Sell  you  out,  will  they! 
Well,  that  is  just  what  we  want,  and  is  what  we  have  been 
trying  to  do  ourselves  for  six  months."  He  said:  "General, 
you  go  down  in  the  morning  and  tell  them  if  they  can  sell 
your  securities  to  do  so,  and  when  they  get  through  let  them 
sell  mine."  I  saw  the  point;  I  called  at  the  bank,  told  them 
that  1  was  at  the  end  of  my  rope  and  to  sell,  and  when  they 
got  through  selling  mine,  Mr.  Huntington  said  to  sell  his. 
That  settled  that  question,  and  their  efforts  from  then  on 
were  not  to  try  to  squeeze  us,  but  to  help  us  through.  The 
fact  is,  there  was  no  sale  for  any  security,  which  Huntington 
and  the  bank  knew. 


132  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION  PACIFIC 

The  groups  of  men  I  have  mentioned  have  never  received 
the  credit  that  they  were  entitled  to  and  the  great  field  of 
their  work  should  remember  them  and  monuments  should  be 
raised  to  their  memory. 

I  see  Mr.  Meeker  is  here  trying  to  raise  monuments  to 
mark  the  old  Oregon  trail  which  I  have  traveled  over  so  many 
times,  but  the  men  that  I  have  mentioned  have  marked  it  with 
bands  of  steel  and  now  it  reaches  from  the  Missouri  to  the 
Pacific,  and  you  can  stand  beside  it  at  any  place  during  any 
hour  of  the  day  and  you  will  see  trains,  passenger  and  freight, 
passing,  and  they  have  made  it  the  most  noted  route  of  trans- 
portation in  the  world.  I  hope  Meeker  will  succeed  in  raising 
monuments  for  the  old  wagon  trail;  it  is  commendable  to  try 
to  pass  into  history  the  work  of  those  crossing  the  continent 
in  '49. 

Now  comes  the  group  of  workers  following  and  sustain- 
ing the  efforts  of  the  great  men  I  have  mentionel.  Every  com- 
munity has  them;  right  here  in  Omaha  you  have  many  noted 
ones.  I  see  some  around  this  table.  Who  has  forgotten  the 
work  of  Dr.  George  L.  Miller,  who,  all  his  life,  was  working 
to  build  up  this  country  and  whose  support  and  friendship  is 
so  dear  to  me?  "With  him  were  Saunders,  Hanscom,  Hitch- 
cock, Morton  and  hundreds  of  others,  and  the  new  generation 
that  is  coming  after  us  should  never  let  their  work  and  names 
be  forgotten. 

I  have  detained  you  far  longer  than  I  intended,  but  when 
you  say  a  word  about  these  early  great  events,  you  never 
know  when  or  where  to  stop,  and  once  more  I  thank  you  from 
the  bottom  of  my  heart. 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  have  here  with  me  and  to  see  you 
honor  the  wife  and  daughter  of  that  comrade  of  mine,  who  in 
war  and  peace  was  such  a  great  friend.  No  matter  whether 
it  was  his  magnetism  in  battle  or  his  eloquence  in  Congress, 
in  all  the  years  I  knew  him  he  was  ready  with  both  to  aid  and 
defend  me  with  any  work  I  was  engaged,  and  his  good  wife 
stood  by  to  do  more  if  possible,  and  no  one  honors  more  than 
I  do  the  memory  of  my  old  comrade,  John  A.  Logan,  and  no 
one  is  truer  to  me  than  his  good  wife  and  his  family. 


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ADDRESS  AT  UNVEILING  OF  MONUMENT  TO  MAJOR 
MARSHALL  F.  HURD,  DENVER,  COLORADO. 


Marshall  Farnam  Hurd  was  born  in  Scipio,  Cayuga  County, 
New  York,  in  1823.  His  father  married  Abbie  Farnam,  sister 
of  Henry  Farnam  of  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  the  builder  of 
the  Rock  Island  Railroad,  and  under  whose  auspices  the  first 
surveys  were  made  for  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  in  1852-1860. 

Hurd's  father  and  mother  died  within  a  few  months  of 
each  other,  leaving  three  small  children — Irwin  Newton  Hurd, 
afterward  a  Presbyterian  minister,  now  deceased;  Florence 
A.  Hurd,  afterward  Hoyt,  deceased,  and  Marshall  Farnam 
Hurd,  a  baby  only  a  few  months  old. 

The  children  were  separated  and  Marshall  Farnam  Hurd 
was  brought  up  in  his  uncle's  family.  The  uncle  was  a  noted 
engineer  in  New  York,  and  had  charge  of  the  Lockport  Locks 
in  the  Erie  Canal,  also  of  much  other  work  in  the  State  of 
New  York.  From  him  Hurd  obtained  his  education  and  prac- 
tice as  a  civil  engineer.  His  first  work  in  his  profession  was 
in  New  York  State  and  afterward  on  the  Rock  Island  Railroad 
in  the  State  of  Illinois.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War 
he  was  at  Muscatine,  Iowa. 

On  July  24,  1861,  he  enlisted  at  Burlington,  Iowa,  in  Com- 
pany I,  Seventh  Iowa  Volunteers.  On  August  23  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  Company  A.  On  August  25,  1861,  he  was  promoted 
to  fourth  corporal  and  on  July  28,  1863,  was  made  second 
corporal.  He  was  taken  prisoner  November  7,  1861,  at  the 
battle  of  Belmont  and  was  exchanged  October  17,  1862.  He  was 
mustered  out  of  the  service  August  9,  1864,  by  reason  of  expi- 
ration of  his  term  of  service. 

I  first  knew  Hurd  at  Corinth,  Mississippi,  in  the  fall  or 
winter  of  1862,  where  I  was  in  command.  I  called  for  details 
from  the  different  commands  for  engineers.  Hurd  was  one 
of  the  men  that  reported  to  me  and  I  put  him  in  charge  of  a 
portion  of  the  force  that  was  building  fortifications  around 

—133— 


134  HOW  WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

Corinth.  From  that  time  until  he  was  mustered  out  he  fol- 
lowed his  profession  in  the  army,  especially  in  the  work  which 
fell  to  the  Sixteenth  Army  Corps  in  rebuilding  the  Memphis 
&  Charleston,  Nashville  &  Decatur,  Mobile  &  Ohio  and  other 
railroads.  Realizing  how  competent  he  was  as  an  engineer, 
every  effort  was  made  by  myself  and  my  superior  officers  to 
have  Hurd  given  a  commission,  but  being  detailed  from  his 
regiment  he  could  get  no  indorsement  from  it,  and  we  failed 
to  obtain  a  commission  for  him  from  the  United  States,  there- 
fore he  served  all  the  time,  although  only  an  enlisted  man,  as 
civil  engineer  in  charge  of  men,  and  even  officers.  Every  one 
recognized  him  as  a  commissioned  officer — many,  I  believe,  not 
even  knowing  that  he  was  not  commissioned.  He  was  called 
"Major,"  and  the  engineers  of  the  other  corps  and  divisions 
he  came  in  contact  with  always  recognized  him  and  treated 
him  as  a  commissioned  officer.  He  was  especially  efficient  in 
throwing  up  entrenchments  in  front  of  the  enemy.  He  was 
utilized  mostly  by  the  Sixteenth  Army  Corps,  although  often 
detailed  by  the  commanders  of  the  army  with  the  Sixteenth 
Army  Corps  Pioneer  Corps,  which  consisted  of  about  1,500  de- 
tailed men  and  negroes,  and  was  probably  the  most  efficient 
construction  corps  in  either  Grant's  or  Sherman's  armies.  He 
was  known  throughout  the  army  as  an  officer  who,  when  he  was 
on  the  line  building  entrenchments  under  fire,  no  matter  what 
the  circumstances  were,  stayed  with  his  work,  however  fiercely 
attacked.  He  turned  his  pioneer  corps,  largely  made  up  of  en- 
listed men,  into  fighting  men,  and  whenever  we  saw  him  come 
from  his  work  with  any  portion  of  his  pioneer  corps  when  at- 
tacked, we  knew  it  was  because  he  was  driven  out  by  a  superior 
force.  Other  pioneer  corps  would  often  come  out  when  simply 
attacked,  not  being  able  to  hold  their  men  to  the  work,  but 
Hurd  never  did,  and  in  this  way  he  became  favorably  known 
in  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee. 

Hurd  left  me  in  August,  1864,  in  front  of  Atlanta,  to  be 
mustered  out.  Not  being  able  to  obtain  promotion,  he  went 
back  to  his  profession  and  began  work  on  the  Union  Pacific 
Railway  under  S.  B.  Reed,  who  was  division  engineer  of  the 
road  at  that  time.  After  the  war,  in  1866,  I  found  Hurd  upon 
the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  and  during  the  construction  of  the 


: 





A  TRIBUTE  TO  MAJOR  MARSHALL  F.  HURD  135 

work  he  was  used  almost  entirely  in  the  construction  forces. 
Mr.  S.  B.  Reed  had  charge  of  the  construction  work  for  the 
contractors,  and  Hurd  generally  worked  under  his  direction, 
though  at  times  he  was  used  to  examine  and  make  difficult 
locations. 

When  I  was  building  the  Union  Pacific  railway  in  1867 
Hurd  had  charge  of  the  division  crossing  the  Black  Hills  from 
Cheyenne  west,  and  one  time  when  I  was  in  Cheyenne  he 
started  out  with  provisions  for  his  party.  I  gave  him  a  com- 
pany of  Pawnee  Indians  who  were  on  the  line  as  escort  for 
engineering  parties  and  construction  forces  with  me.  Accom- 
panying him  was  Silas  Seymour,  consulting  engineer  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railway.  When  they  reached  what  is  known  as 
Granite  Canon,  the  Pawnees  discovered  a  party  of  Crows  who 
had  just  stolen  the  stock  from  one  of  the  grading  camps,  and 
they  immediately  left  Hurd  with  his  teams  and  provisions  and 
started  for  the  Indians.  Hurd  saw  nothing  more  of  them,  but 
there  were  other  Indians  near  him,  and  he  immediately  cor- 
ralled his  train  and  prepared  to  protect  it  with  his  teamsters, 
sending  word  to  me  where  he  was.  and  how  he  was  situated. 
The  Indians  saw  his  preparations  and  did  not  attack  him.  A 
force  was  sent  to  his  aid  and  he  moved  on.  The  Pawnee  Indians 
returned  to  Crow  Creek,  where  Cheyenne  is  now  located,  bring- 
ing with  them  several  scalps,  and  evidently  expecting  great 
praise  for  what  they  had  done,  and  when  I  censured  them  for 
deserting  Hurd  they  were  utterly  disgusted,  but  they  made 
the  nights  hideous  for  a  week  with  their  war  dances  over  their 
fights  and  scalps.  v 

When  I  left  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  to  go  to  Texas  to 
take  charge  of  the  building  of  the  Texas  &  Pacific  Railway,  I 
took  Hurd  with  me  and  placed  him  in  charge  of  the  party  that 
was  to  make  the  survey  across  the  Staked  Plains  to  El  Paso, 
knowing  that  it  would  be  a  difficult  country,  and  dangerous 
on  account  of  the  roaming  bands  of  Indians  that  were  upon  it. 
Hurd  with  his  party  reached  what  are  known  as  Sulphur 
Springs,  at  the  foot  of  the  Staked  Plains,  and  found  a  band 
of  Indians  in  charge  of  those  springs.  There  was  no  water 
from  that  point  to  the  Pecos  River,  some  150  miles  away.  Hurd 
opened  negotiations  with  the  Indians  with  a  view  of  obtaining 


136  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

water,  but  they  refused  to  let  him  have  it,  and  he  immediately 
formed  his  party,  which  was  armed,  and  made  an  attack  upon 
the  Indians,  and  drove  them  away  from  the  place.  There  were 
at  least  200  of  them.  Hurd  made  no  report  of  this  to  me,  but 
a  complaint  was  made  to  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  Texas, 
who  sent  to  me  for  an  explanation.  As  soon  as  I  could  reach 
Hurd  I  sent  the  complaint  to  him,  and  he  answered  it  with  a 
few  lines.  He  said  that  he  found  the  Indians  there,  and  that 
they  would  not  share  the  water  with  him  or  allow  him  to  go 
to  the  springs,  so  he  attacked  them  and  they  immediately  ran 
away.  Whether  he  hurt  any  of  them  he  did  not  know  or 
care.  He  said  he  knew  it  would  never  do  for  him  to  return 
to  me  and  make  a  report  that  he  could  not  obtain  this  wTater, 
unless  he  had  made  an  effort  to  do  so.  His  reports  on  his  work 
were  always  short,  giving  but  little  description  unless  in- 
structed to  do  so.  He  always  relied  upon  his  maps  and  profiles 
to  indicate  his  work. 

After  the  completion  of  the  Texas  &  Pacific  surveys  in 
1874,  Hurd  went  North,  and  was  employed  upon  different 
roads.  In  the  '80s,  he,  with  his  uncle,  S.  B.  Reed,  was  employed 
by  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  in  locating  lines  over  and 
through  the  mountain  division,  and  much  of  his  work  there 
stands  as  remarkable  examples  of  mountain  location,  and  a 
part  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  crossing  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains is  built  upon  lines  that  he  located. 

In  1886,  when  I  commenced  extending  the  Fort  Worth  & 
Denver  City  Railway  to  Denver,  after  putting  my  forces  in 
Texas  in  the  field  I  went  to  Denver  on  the  cars  in  the  spring 
of  1887.  As  I  stepped  off  the  train  the  first  person  I  saw  stand- 
ing on  the  platform  was  Hurd.  We  were  both  astonished  to 
meet  each  other.  The  first  question  I  asked  Hurd  was  what 
he  was  doing.  He  answered  that  he  had  just  come  off  some 
survey,  and  was  at  liberty.  I  told  him  to  immediately  proceed 
to  Trinidad,  and  get  an  outfit  and  make  a  reconnoissance  for 
me  from  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Pe  Railway  east,  along 
the  summit  of  the  Raton  Range,  and  find  me  the  best  pass  over 
that  range  of  mountains  on  as  direct  a  line  as  possible  from 
Trinidad  to  Tascosa,  Texas,  and  to  be  ready  to  report  to  me 
within  two  weeks  in  Trinidad.  When  I  drove  through  to  Trini- 


A  TRIBUTE  TO  MAJOR  MARSHALL  F.  HURD  137 

dad  I  found  Hurd  waiting  there  for  me.  He  said  that  he  had 
found  a  good  pass  and  believed  he  could  locate  a  line  through 
the  mountains  on  a  1  per  cent  grade.  I  told  him  to  organize  a 
party  immediately  and  make  the  location,  and  he  accompanied 
me  through  what  was  then  known  as  Emory  Gap  to  show  me 
the  line  he  had  selected.  I  approved  it,  and  he  made  a  remark- 
ably fine  location  with  a  1  per  cent  equated  grade. 

After  the  completion  of  this  work  Hurd  was  employed 
on  some  of  the  surveys  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  for  other  com- 
panies, until  his  age  became  such  that  he  could  no  longer  keep 
the  field. 

In  1874  Hurd  married  Maggie  Fitzsimmons,  at  Ottumwa, 
Iowa.  She  died  in  1886  and  is  buried  in  Ottumwa.  She  was 
a  lovely,  good  character,  a  great  comfort  to  Hurd,  and  her 
death  was  a  severe  loss  to  him.  Only  a  few  months  after  the 
death  of  his  wife,  his  sister,  Mrs.  Hoyt,  died.  She  was  always 
very  near  to  Hurd,  and  the  double  loss  was  very  hard  upon 
him.  He  said  at  the  time:  "I  wonder  who  will  be  with  me 
when  I  go." 

Hurd  lived  simply;  he  was  never  a  money  maker.  He 
never  seemed  ambitious  to  make  money,  only  to  do  his  duty 
in  whatever  position  was  assigned  him;  never  was  particular 
about  his  salary,  taking  whatever  was  given  him.  His  reputa- 
tion in  camp  was  that  he  could  keep  and  ration  a  party  on 
less  money  than  any  engineer  that  was  ever  in  my  service.  It 
was  said  of  him  that  all  he  needed  to  keep  himself  alive  was 
tobacco.  I  remember  in  driving  across  the  country  in  1887 
from  Trinidad  to  Tascosa,  Texas,  that  the  person  I  had  as- 
signed to  put  up  the  provisions  for  us  had  provided  only  sand- 
wiches, which,  of  course,  became  so  dry  in  a  few  days  that 
we  could  not  eat  them.  I  expected  to  obtain  something  for  my 
party  to  eat  when  I  reached  Hurd's  camp.  When  I  arrived  at 
the  camp  Hurd  was  out  on  the  line,  but  I  asked  the  cook  if 
he  had  anything  to  eat,  and  he  said  "No,"  that  they  had  just 
sent  the  teams  to  Trindad  for  provisions.  I  asked  why  they 
had  not  sent  before,  and  he  said  the  reason  was  that  the  "old 
man"  had  not  run  out  of  tobacco,  and  was  never  known  to 
send  for  provisions  so  long  as  tobacco  lasted,  so  we  had  to 
continue  on  our  trip,  living  upon  an  antelope  that  I  happened 


138  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION  PACIFIC 

to  kill  the  next  day,  and  occasionally  a  few  birds  that  we 
shot  on  the  prairies. 

Hurd  was  always  held  in  high  esteem  by  all  the  engineers 
he  worked  with.  He  was  very  modest  and  reticent,  and  it  was 
hard  to  keep  him  in  conversation,  but  his  work  was  always 
complete  and  satisfactory,  and  he  would  work  a  party  longer 
and  under  more  difficult  circumstances  than  any  engineer  I 
ever  knew. 

It  is  seldom  that  the  work  of  such  a  man  as  Hurd  is  rec- 
ognized. People  forget  that  it  is  the  brains,  energy  and  self- 
sacrifice  of  such  men  that  have  developed  the  great  "West  and 
made  it  the  empire  it  is,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  I  have 
felt  that  the  simple  tribute  I  pay  him  is  due  to  him  for  his  long 
and  faithful  service  Avith  me. 

During  the  latter  part  of  his  life  the  home  of  Hurd  was 
in  Denver,  and  it  is  in  that  city  that  he  was  laid  to  rest.  His 
grave  is  marked  by  a  simple  shaft,  the  inscriptions  on  which 
record  concisely  the  work  of  his  life.    They  are  as  follows : 

"Marshall  Farnam  Hurd.  Died  March  4,  1903.  aged  80 
years.  Enlisted  in  Company  A,  Seventh  Iowa  Volunteers,  Au- 
gust 28,  1863,  and  served  during  the  Civil  War.  A  brave,  able 
and  faithful  comrade ;  a  prominent  civil  engineer,  modest,  but 
never  failing  to  accomplish  any  work  he  was  assigned  to. 
Many  of  his  mountain  railway  locations  will  stand  as  a  monu- 
ment to  his  skill  and  adaptability  to  such  difficult  work. 

"Engineer  Second  Division,  Sixteenth  Army  Corps. 

"Division  Engineer  Union  Pacific  Eailway,  Texas  &  Pacific 
Railway,  Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  Fort  Worth  &  Denver  City 
and  other  railways. 

"This  monument  is  erected  by  his  comrade,  Major-General 
Grenville  M.  Dodge,  in  testimony  of  his  many  years  of  loyal 
and  faithful  service  under  him." 


ADDRESS  ON  'THE  PIONEERS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
THE  WEST,"  GIVEN  AT  A  BANQUET  MARCH  10, 
1906,  IN  OMAHA. 


When  a  voice  called  me  up  on  the  telephone  and  informed 
me  that  this  club  desired  to  give  me  a  luncheon  at  which  I 
could  meet  some  of  my  old  friends,  I  was  surprised  and  rather 
objected,  but  the  voice  took  me  back  to  early  days,  and  I 
thought  if  those  who  were  with  me  then  carried  their  friend- 
ship so  long  and  desired  to  see  me,  it  was  a  great  honor  and 
satisfaction  to  me,  and  I  accepted  with  great  pleasure. 

Naturally  when  I  meet  you  here  under  such  circumstances 
my  mind  carries  me  back  to  the  early  '50s,  when  there  was 
no  Omaha  and  no  Nebraska.  The  first  time  I  crossed  the  Mis- 
souri River,  with  a  small  engineering  party,  I  was  greeted  on 
this  side  by  Indians.  No  white  man  lived  here  and  no  one  in 
my  party  probably  had  ever  seen  an  Indian  before.  My  duties 
as  chief  of  the  party  were  to  look  up  the  country  ahead,  and 
the  young  boy  who  ran  the  party  is  a  citizen  today  of  Omaha. 
He  was  with  me  many  years,  an  able,  conscientious,  hard 
working,  faithful  man,  to  whom  I  owe  much,  for  he  faithfully 
filled  all  his  positions.  He  is  well  known  in  this  city,  and  I  am 
glad  to  say  has  been  honored  by  it,  I  speak  of  Mr.  J.  E.  House. 

I  rode  out  to  the  Elkhorn  River  alone,  leaving  House  to 
follow.  On  arriving  at  the  Elkhorn  I  was  tired,  unsaddled  to 
give  illy  horse  a  chance  to  graze,  and  lay  down  to  take  a  nap, 
I  was  aroused  by  the  neighing  of  my  horse,  and  looking  across 
the  valley  saw  a  Pawnee  Indian  taking  him  as  fast  as  he  could 
force  him  along  towards  the  river.  Naturally  I  was  frightened 
and  hardly  knew  what  to  do,  but  instinct  told  me  I  must  have 
my  horse,  and  grabbing  my  rifle  I  started  out  towards  the 
Indian,  hollowing  at  the  top  of  my  voice.  The  pony  was  evi- 
dently as  frightened  at  the  Indian  as  I  was,  and  was  stubborn 
in  his  movements,  and  the  Indian  finally  dropped  him  and  fled 
across  the  Elkhorn. 

—139— 


14  0  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC 

Ten  or  twelve  years  afterwards,  when  I  was  in  command 
of  this  department,  and  was  ordered  to  open  the  different  mail 
and  stage  lines  across  the  continent,  which  had  been  closed 
for  some  months  by  the  Indians,  I  raised  a  battalion  of  Paw- 
nees to  aid  me  as  scouts  and  placed  in  command  of  them  Major 
North,  a  very  valuable  officer,  and  they  were  of  great  service 
to  me.  The  Indian  who  attempted  to  steal  my  horse  was  one 
of  the  battalion,  and  stated  to  Major  North  that  I  made  so 
much  noise  that  I  scared  the  pony  and  himself  so  that  he  got 
away  from  me  as  fast  as  possible  and  never  stopped  running 
until  he  reached  the  Pawnee  village  across  the  Platte. 

On  my  return  to  the  party  I  found  it  encamped  on  the 
emigrant  road  leading  from  Florence  to  the  Elkhorn  at  the 
crossing  of  the  Big  Papillion.  During  the  day  the  Indians  had 
been  helping  themselves  and  the  party  was  in  a  far  from  happy 
state  of  mind,  in  fact,  the  Indians  had  actual  possession  of  the 
camp,  and  you  can  see  my  introduction  to  Nebraska  was  any- 
thing but  a  satisfactory  one. 

Now,  if  I  should  try  to  portray  to  you  or  any  one  the 
experiences,  the  trials  and  the  sufferings  of  the  picket  line  of 
settlement  and  explorations  in  those  days,  you  would  declare 
it  more  fiction  than  fact.  Early  friendships  made  under  such 
circumstances  are  calculated  to  last,  and  it  is  one  of  the  great 
gratifications  of  my  life  that  the  ties  that  bound  us  together 
never  have  been  sundered.  I  cannot  tell  you  anything  of 
Omaha  today,  but  probably  no  one  has  a  better  knowledge 
of  the  circumstances  and  facts  that  founded  Omaha  as  a  future 
great  city.  If  you  knew  them  all,  you  could  see  upon  what 
slender  threads  at  times  its  existence  depended.  Omaha,  as  a 
city,  was  determined  long  before  it  was  settled.  It  camfc  from 
the  settlement  of  the  location  on  the  Missouri  River  of  the 
surveys  made  under  the  direction  of  Henry  Farnam  and  Wil- 
liam Sheffield  far  in  advance  of  any  settlement  of  this  territory. 
It  fell  to  my  lot,  under  the  direction  of  that  distinguished 
engineer  and  more  distinguished  citizen,  Peter  A.  Dey,  to 
make  the  first  survey  across  the  State  of  Iowa  and  to  determine 
where  in  all  probability  a  line  would  end  upon  the  Missouri 
River  in  this  parallel  of  latitude  and  where  any  railroad  being 
built  west  would  leave  this  river.  None  of  you  know  the  inter- 


THE    PIONEERS   OF   THE   WEST  141 

ests  involved  and  the  matters  raised  in  determining  that  point. 
My  survey  demonstrated  that  the  true  engineering  and  com- 
mercial line  crossing  Iowa  should  come  down  the  Mosquito 
and  end  at  Council  Bluffs,  and  going  wTest  the  line  should  cross 
to  the  Platte  Valley  and  up  that  to  the  mountains,  and  so  on 
west.  The  financial  interests  in  Iowa  were  favorable  to  a  line 
running  down  the  Pigeon  and  crossing  to  Florence ;  another 
diversion  was  by  Bellevue,  another  south  of  the  Platte,  and 
a  fourth  crossing  at  the  mouth  of  the  Boyer,  and  all  these  lines 
I  examined. 

Before  my  surveys  had  been  finally  determined  the  parties 
interested  had  planted  their  stakes  at  Florence  and  announced 
that  as  the  crossing  place  of  the  Missouri  River.  My  reports 
were  sustained  by  Mr.  Dey,  and  finally  the  decision  made  was 
reversed  and  the  crossing  determined  to  be  opposite  this  place. 
This  being  determined,  I  was  authorized  to  commence  work 
at  Council  Bluffs,  provided  I  could  obtain  local  aid,  and  Pot- 
tawattamie County  gave  me  $300,000  in  bonds  and  Mr.  Farnam 
furnished  the  funds  for  doing  the  grading  and  what  work  was 
done  up  to  the  time  that  all  work  in  the  state  was  stopped  on 
account  of  the  panic.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  final  deter- 
mination of  what  is  now  known  as  the  Rock  Island  Railway 
crossing  the  Missouri  River,  was  what  first  drew  the  attention 
of  people  to  Omaha  and  that  brought  to  the  Bluffs  every  rail- 
road survey  at  that  time  being  made  across  the  state,  and  I 
think  there  are  men  at  this  table  who  will  say  to  you  that  that 
was  the  real  first  beginning  of  Omaha. 

In  1859,  if  I  recollect  rightly,  on  my  way  from  re*eon- 
noissances  west  with  my  party,  which  had  been  out  the  entire 
summer,  I  camped  my  party  in  Council  Bluffs  and  went  to  the 
Pacific  House.  At  that  time  Abraham  Lincoln  was  visiting  the 
Bluffs,  He  heard  of  my  return  from  my  surveys  and  sought 
me  out  at  the  Pacific  House,  and  on  the  porch  of  that  hotel  he 
sat  with  me  for  two  hours  or  more  and  drew  out  of  me  all  the 
facts  I  had  obtained  in  my  surveys  and  naturally  my  opinion 
as  to  the  route  for  a  railroad  west,  and  as  to  the  feasibility  of 
building  it.  I  thought  no  more  of  this  at  the  time  than  that 
possibly  I  had  been  giving  away  secrets  that  belonged  to  my 
employers  in  this  work. 


142  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION  PACIFIC 

In  1863,  whilst  in  command  of  the  District  of  Corinth, 
Mississippi,  I  received  a  despatch  from  General  Grant  to  pro- 
ceed to  Washington  and  report  to  the  President.  No  explana- 
tion coming  with  despatch.  I  was  a  little  alarmed,  for  there 
had  come  to  me  at  Corinth  a  great  many  negroes  and  I  had 
placed  them  in  what  was  known  as  a  contraband  camp  and 
had  placed  over  them  certain  soldiers  as  guards.  This  caused 
me  a  good  deal  of  annoyance  and  trouble.  The  white  soldiers 
did  not  like  the  duty  and  took  every  opportunity  to  annoy  the 
negroes,  even  in  some  cases  going  as  far  as  to  shoot  them.  The 
superintendent  of  the  camp  was  Chaplain  Alexander  of  an 
Ohio  regiment,  a  very  able  and  excellent  man,  and  he  sug- 
gested one  day  to  me  that  he  believed  that  negroes  would  be 
better  to  guard  the  contraband  camp  than  white  soldiers.  I 
authorized  him  to  raise  one  or  two  companies  and  I  armed 
them,  solely  for  the  purpose  of  guarding  these  negroes.  I  had 
no  authority  to  do  this  and  I  did  not  at  the  time  appreciate 
the  importance  that  was  to  be  given  to  it.  There  were  many 
protests  against  this,  and  in  the  command  there  was  consi-  i 
derable  opposition  to  it,  and  I  thought  that  my  call  to  Wash- 
ington was  possibly  to  be  called  to  account  for  this  act. 

When  I  reached  Washington  and  reported  to  the  President 
I  soon  ascertained  that  I  was  there  for  a  consultation  in  regard 
to  the  eastern  terminus  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway.  He  had 
remembered  his  conversation  with  me  on  the  Pacific  House 
porch,  and  under  the  law  it  had  been  made  his  duty  to  deter- 
mine the  eastern  terminus  of  the  Union  Pacific  road,  and  those 
of  you  who  remember  that  time  know  what  pressure  was 
brought  to  bear  on  the  President  to  name  different  points  far 
north  and  far  south  of  this.  After  a  long  conversation  with 
me,  obtaining  my  views  fully  and  the  reasons  for  them,  the 
President  finally  determined  to  make  it,  as  you  all  know,  on 
the  western  border  of  Iowa,  opposite  this  city.  That  decision, 
in  my  opinion,  settled  beyond  all  question  the  future  of  your 
city  and  your  state. 

I  wish  to  say  here  that  while  my  surveys  and  my  conclu- 
sions may  have  been  of  great  benefit  to  you,  still  they  were 
made  because  there  was  no  question,  from  an  engineering 
point  of  view,  where  the  line  crossing  Iowa  and  going  west 


THE   PIONEERS   OF   THE   WEST  143 

from  this  river,  should  cross  the  Missouri  River,  and  it  was 
also  my  conclusion  that  it  was  the  commercial  line.  The  Lord 
had  so  constructed  the  country  that  any  engineer  who  failed 
to  take  advantage  of  the  great  open  road  from  here  west  to 
Salt  Lake  would  not  have  been  fit  to  belong  to  the  profession; 
600  miles  of  it  up  a  single  valley  without  a  grade  to  exceed 
fifteen  feet;  the  natural  pass  over  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the 
lowest  in  all  the  range,  and  the  divide  of  the  continent,  instead 
of  being  a  mountain  summit,  has  a  basin  500  feet  below  the 
general  level.  It  was  a  gratification  to  me  at  the  time  to  have 
the  support  of  all  the  people  in  the  vicinity  of  this  country  in 
my  views.  There  is  no  telling  how  much  influence  it  had  and 
weight  it  carried,  and  without  being  invidious  or  partial,  I 
really  think  that  Omaha  and  Nebraska  today  owe  more  to  my 
old  friend  and  always  faithful  comrade  and  supporter,  Dr. 
George  L.  Miller,  for  the  success  of  these  efforts,  than  any 
other  man.  I  could  show  you  many  of  the  benefits  he  brought 
to  you,  even  more  than  he  knows  himself,  and  he  was  the 
most  unselfish  and  determined  continuous  fighter  for  his  city 
and  state  that  I  ever  knew,  and  I  take  pleasure  here  in  his 
own  home  in  paying  my  tribute  to  him. 

Now.  gentlemen,  this  city  and  state  for  their  great  pros- 
perity, after  the  fact,  are  mostly  indebted  to  the  Union  Pacific 
Railway.  It  blazed  the  way  across  the  continent.  They  took 
all  the  chances  and  solved  the  problem  of  the  building  of  a 
railroad  to  the  Pacific,  not  only  from  an  engineering  point  of 
view,  but  also  from  a  commercial  one,  and  it  was,  therefore, 
easy  after  that  for  all  roads  to  follow.  It  was  at  that  time  a 
very  great  problem  if  a  road  built  could  ever  earn  its  interest. 
After  its  completion  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  company 
requested  me  to  make  an  estimate  of  the  gross  earnings  per 
mile  for  the  next  ten  years.  They  desired  an  estimate  from 
which  they  could  prove  to  the  people  that  it  would  be  able  to 
pay  the  interest  upon  the  first  mortgage  bonds,  and  after 
calling  to  my  aid  all  the  people  who  had  knowledge  of  the 
capabilities  of  the  country  west  of  the  Missouri  River,  as  well 
as  those  of  China  and  Japan,  and,  in  fact,  of  all  Asia,  the  best 
I  could  do  was  to  report  to  them  gross  earnings  within  ten 
years  of  $5,000  per  mile,  and  if  I  remember  rightly,  in  less 


144  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

than  five  years  the  road  earned  $10,000  per  mile.  So  you  see 
how  little  those  who  had  the  best  knowledge  of  this  country 
appreciated  what  its  development  would  bring  about. 

The  earnings  of  the  Union  Pacific  made  it  safe  for  any 
other  road  to  enter  the  territory,  and  to  the  Farnams,  the 
Ameses,  the  Dillons,  Goulds,  Scott,  Huntington  and  Stamford 
in  an  early  day,  and  to  Perkins,  Miller,  Cable,  Hewitt  and  many 
others  of  a  later  day,  this  country  should  give  great  honor  and 
no  abuse.  It  has  been  the  fashion  in  our  day  to  hold  up  to 
the  coming  generation  the  names  of  Astor,  Vanderbilt  and 
the  noted  Knickerbockers  as  the  great  men,  commercially,  for 
them  to  follow.  These  men  invested  their  money  in  the  east, 
where  it  was  safe  and  sure  of  dividends,  but  the  men  who 
developed  the  country  and  brought  in  their  millions  without 
one  cent  in  return,  they  are  the  ones  you  and  all  others  are 
indebted  to  for  their  foresight,  their  risking  everything  and- 
finally  building  up  a  great  empire  west  of  the  lakes.  Most  of 
those  of  the  earlier  day  have  passed  away,  and  this  country 
is  now  awakening  to  the  credit  due  them,  which  I  hope  will 
sometime  be  paid  them. 

When  you  come  down  to  the  present  time,  I  admit  that 
I  am  not  up  to  the  times.  I  never  dreamed  that  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  would  control  the  Southern  Pacific.  My  fear 
was  always  that  the  ownership  would  be  in  the  Southern 
Pacific.  You  must  not  sit  still  and  pass  by  what  there  is  for 
you  here  in  this  great  control.  Your  business  men  must  get 
near  to  the  throne,  and  use  your  energies  like  Miller  and 
Hitchcock,  and  Saunders  and  Millard  and  many  others  did  in 
an  earlier  day  to  take  the  benefits  of  these  new  developments. 
Nor  need  you  be  afraid  of  the  great  combinations  just  com- 
pleted in  the  northwest.  It  will  not  raise  the  rates  of  freight 
one  mill  nor  of  passengers  one  cent.  The  men  at  the  head  of 
that  gigantic  enterprise  are  broad-minded.  They  have  thought 
and  built  well,  and  they  will  bring  stability,  development  and 
great  wealth,  that  cannot  but  be  of  great  benefit  to  you.  You 
must  not  forget  one  of  the  great  advantages  of  such  combina- 
tions to  a  new  country.  They  have  behind  them  such  an  im- 
mense capital  that  when  you  go  to  them  with  any  project  that 
has  merit  in  it,  for  the  development  of  your  country,  they  are 


THE    PIONEERS   OF   THE   WEST  145 

able  to  adopt  it  and  carry  it  out,  whilst  in  an  earlier  day 
projects  were  often  presented  to  those  who  controlled  the 
internal  improvements  of  this  country  which  they  saw  the 
merits  of  and  were  anxious  to  take  hold  of,  but  it  was  impos- 
sible for  them  to  obtain  the  capital  at  those  times  to  do  it. 
Nor  must  you  forget  what  this  combination  means.  The  coun- 
try west  of  here  has  hardly  been  scratched  and  with  the  brains 
and  capital  of  the  country  pushing  forward  its  development 
with  steam  and  electricty  and  air,  what  one  here  can  prophesy 
what  fifty  years  will  develop  between  here  and  the  Pacific 
ocean? 

I  know  there  is  some  nervousness  among  people  about 
these  great  combinations,  but  those  that  are  not  upon  a  solid 
basis  will  topple  over  from  their  overweight,  and  the  others 
will  continue  and  grow  and  bring  stability  to  all  kinds  of  busi- 
ness. The  commercial  man  wants  to  know  that  he  can  safely 
lay  down  plans  for  six  months  or  a  year,  and  under  such  direc- 
tion he  can  safely  do  it,  and  it  is  a  mistake  to  attack  them 
before  you  are  hurt.  You  will  find  greater  benefits  coming  to 
your  country  by  supporting  and  aiding  them  rather  than  by 
abuse  and  opposition. 

New  blood  must  take  the  place  of  old,  and  I  bid  you  God- 
speed in  your  efforts.  And  now,  my  friends,  in  our  old  age 
the  great  satisfaction  to  all  of  you  and  to  me  is  to  know  that 
our  early  efforts  are  both  recognized  and  appreciated ;  that 
the  old  friendships  acquired  in  trials  and  tribulations  are  still 
fresh  and  true,  and  to  my  old  friends  and  all  of  you  I  wish  I 
knew  how  to  express  to  you  what  is  in  my  heart,  but  I  cannot. 
I  can  only  say,  I  thank  you  with  all  my  heart. 


LETTER  TO  THE  IOWA  RAILWAY  CLUB,  DES  MOINES, 
IOWA,  MAY  25,  1908. 


Mr.  C.  W.  Jones,  President  Iowa  Railway  Club,  Des  Moines, 
Iowa. 

Dear  Sir:  It  is  with  deepest  regret  that  I  find  myself  un- 
able on  account  of  an  illness,  not  serious,  but  which  makes  it 
impossible  for  me  to  travel,  to  be  present  at  the  reunion  of  the 
old-time  railway  men  of  Iowa,  for  it  was  my  good  fortune  early 
in  1853  to  cross  the  Mississippi  River  and  be  one  of  a  party 
under  Mr.  Peter  A.  Dey,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  railroad 
engineers  and  citizens,  that  made  the  first  survey  across  the 
State  of  Iowa  from  the  Mississippi  River  at  Davenport  to 
Council  Bluffs  on  the  Missouri  River,  and  to  take  part  in  the 
building  of  that  line  to  Iowa  City.  I  think  it  was  the  first 
railroad  built  in  the  State  of  Iowa.  I  take  great  pleasure  and 
great  satisfaction  in  extending  my  greetings  to  my  railroad 
comrades  of  that  day. 

It  has  also  been  my  good  fortune  to  have  continued  my 
railroad  work  from  that  day  to  this,  even  including  the  Civil 
War,  for  in  my  duties  there  I  had  to  destroy  and  rebuild  many 
miles  of  road,  so  I  can  claim  not  only  to  have  been  in  the  be- 
ginning, but  a  veteran  in  the  service,  and  in  all  these  years 
I  have  seen  the  work  of  you  men  that  has  developed  and 
brought  such  prosperity  to  this  country. 

The  men  of  the  early  day  who  risked  their  fortunes  and 
their  credit  to  develop  this  great  country  are  not  only  entitled 
to  our  thanks,  but  monuments  should  be  raised  to  the  work 
which  they  accomplished,  for  most  of  them  waited  many  many 
years  before  they  received  any  returns  from  the  vast  invest- 
ments which  they  made.  The  railroads  of  this  country  were 
most  of  them  built  far  ahead  of  the  population's  demand  and 
were  the  pioneers  in  the  development  and  settlement  of  the 
country.  These  men  have  never  received  the  credit  that  is 
due  them,  but  some  day  when  the  history  of  the  railroads  of 

—147— 


148  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

the  United  States  is  written,  the  risk  they  took,  the  work 
they  accomplished  will  equal  that  of  any  other  performance 
in  our  or  any  other  country.  To  you  who  were  in  the  begin- 
ning it  is  not  necessary  to  relate  the  exposure,  hardship  and 
privations  that  railroad  men  of  our  class  had  to  contend  with 
and  how  different  our  work  in  those  days  was,  compared  with 
what  it  is  under  the  present  modern  conditions.  Still  I  claim 
we  performed  our  work  as  efficiently  with  an  interest  in  it  and 
esprit  de  corps  that  was  equal  comparatively  with  the  work 
of  our  railroad  comrades  of  today. 

We  have  seen  the  railroads  of  a  few  thousand  miles  of 
that  day  grow  until  in  the  United  States  we  have  nearly,  if 
not  quite,  240,000  miles,  and  in  our  state  we  have  seen  built 
a  network  of  them  that  I  believe  covers  every  county  in 
the  state,  probably  giving  our  state  as  good,  if  not  better, 
transportation  services  than  that  of  any  other  state  in  our 
Union,  although  we  are  simply  an  agricultural  state  and  it 
is  this  fact  that  has  made  our  state  so  prominent  a  factor  in 
all  matters  of  national  importance,  and  that  has  given  it  such 
universal  and  individual  prosperity. 

The  railroad  problem  of  today  is  a  far  different  one  from 
what  it  was  in  your  day.  Then  the  whole  aim  and  effort  of  the 
country  was  to  obtain  the  building  of  railroads.  Great  bonuses 
in  stock  were  given  to  capital  that  would  invest  in  them ;  it 
was  the  only  method  of  obtaining  the  construction  of  roads ; 
even  those  that  had  land  grants  in  our  day  which  now  are 
considered  of  such  great  worth,  added  very  little  in  the  nego- 
tiations of  the  securities  that  built  the  road. 

The  growth  of  the  country,  its  business,  its  population  has 
brought  about  an  entirely  different  state  of  affairs.  Legisla- 
tion of  today  for  the  police  and  control  of  railroads  all  tends 
to  prevent  the  building  of  new  roads  and  to  enhance  the  value 
of  old  ones,  so  that  now  the  transportation  of  the  country  is 
organized  in  great  systems  instead  of  as  in  an  early  day  where 
every  road  was  running  in  its  own  interest  and  independent 
of  every  one  of  its  connections.  It  is  a  singular  fact  in  this 
modern  legislation  that  the  people  best  equipped  for  forming 
it  and  carrying  it  out  have  been  very  little  considered.  There- 
fore, much  of  it  is  impracticable  and  has  been  found  by  the 


LETTER  TO  THE   IOWA   RAILWAY   CLUB  149 

courts  impossible.  That  of  it  which  has  been  put  in  force  has 
been  acquiesced  in  by  the  railroads  and  they  are  working  now 
with  the  Interstate  Commerce  and  State  Commissions  in  har- 
mony and  endeavoring  to  comply  with  the  laws  and  decisions, 
not  only  in  the  letter  but  in  the  spirit,  and,  as  our  people  get 
experience  in  these  matters,  I  have  no  doubt,  myself,  that  the 
legislation  will  be  made  practical  and  of  benefit  to  the  roads 
and  to  the  people. 

Experience  shows  the  people  as  they  investigate  this  mat- 
ter that  the  railroad  problem  is  a  very  hard  one  to  solve  and 
that  it  takes  long  experience  to  frame  laws  that  will  accomplish 
the  objects  they  have  in  view.  One  of  the  most  mistaken  ideas 
that  our  country  has  in  relation  to  the  railroads  of  this  coun- 
try is  the  statement  often  made  by  officials  and  through  the 
press  that  the  railroads  of  this  country  are  over  capitalized, 
that  their  stock  is  mostly  water.  People  forget  that  since  the 
roads  were  first  built  that  out  of  their  earnings  millions  upon 
millions  of  dollars  have  gone  in  for  their  improvement  and 
betterment,  for  building  up  their  great  commercial  business, 
and  that  their  value  has  increased  with  that  of  other  products 
and  industries  of  our  country.  They  forget  that  the  life  of  the 
railroad  now  is  only  about  twelve  years  and  that  it  has  to  be 
rebuilt,  so  that  during  our  time  most  of  the  roads  of  the  United 
States  have  been  rebuilt  three  times  and  the  rebuilding  of  them 
has  one-half  of  it  come  out  of  its  earnings  and  all  this  has  been 
added  to  its  capital  without  the  issue  of  bonds  or  stock. 

When  you  go  back  to  our  day  and  remember  that  our  rails 
were  iron  and  only  about  forty  or  fifty  pounds  to  the  yard 
in  weight,  our  cars  were  of  twenty  tons,  our  locomotives  of 
thirty  tons,  and  that  now  our  rails  are  steel  and  run  from 
seventy-five  to  105  pounds  to  the  yard,  our  cars  from  forty 
to  sixty  tons,  our  locomotives  sixty  to  100  tons  on  the  drivers, 
and  that  most  of  our  roads  in  their  bridges,  in  their  shops, 
and  all  of  its  improvements  have  had  to  be  reconstructed  in 
the  same  way  and  are  only  today  being  made  permanent ; 
when  you  consider  that  in  an  early  day  the  question  of  ter- 
minals was  never  a  factor,  while  today  the  terminals  of  some 
roads  passing  through  some  cities  cost  more  than  the  road 
itself;   when  you  see  such  roads  as  the  Pennsylvania  spending 


150  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION  PACIFIC 

$100,000,000  to  get  its  passenger  trains  only  into  New  York 
City,  and  the  New  York  Central  spending  an  equal  amount 
to  enlarge  its  passenger  facilities  in  New  York;  when  you 
see  such  great  systems  in  the  West  as  the  Union  Pacific  and  the 
Southern  Pacific  having  spent  in  the  last  five  years  over  $200,- 
000,000  to  reduce  their  curvatures  and  grades  and  to  see  the 
immense  sums  that  have  to  be  spent  all  over  the  United  States 
to  develop  the  capacity  of  the  properties,  you  can  then  begin 
to  comprehend  the  fact  which  staticians  who  have  examined 
the  question  thoroughly  say  that  the  railroads  of  the  United 
States  today  are  not  over  capitalized.  In  other  words,  there 
has  been  more  actual  money  put  into  them  than  their  stock 
and  the  bonds  represent.  This  has  been  attested  to  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  who  probably  has  given  it 
closer  attention  than  anyone  else  outside  of  the  railroads,  and 
by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  who  have  also  given 
it  great  study,  and  they  have  both  given  the  opinion  that  the 
roads  today  of  the  United  States  are  not  over  capitalized,  and 
that  fact  is  becoming  patent  to  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
for  the  great  increase  in  stockholders  in  the  roads  of  the 
United  States  today  shows  that  instead  of  these  properties 
being  in  the  hands  of  a  few  wealthy  men,  as  is  often  asserted, 
they  are  owned  most  in  this  country  by  a  vast  number  of 
stockholders,  which  is  increasing  daily. 

It  is  the  duty  of  us  who  have  been  long  connected  with 
the  roads,  or  who  were  connected  with  them  in  an  early  day, 
to  do  what  we  can  to  educate  the  people  of  the  United  States 
as  to  the  real  facts  in  connection  with  railroading.  In  my 
opinion  where  the  railroad  people  have  been  lacking  in  their 
duties  is  in  not  educating  the  people  as  the  years  went  by, 
and  setting  forth  more  clearly  to  them  the  railroad  interests 
and  their  intentions.  The  fact  is  that  every  railroad  man  has 
been  so  busy  looking  after  the  proper  administration  of  his 
property  that  he  has  very  seldom  or  ever  gone  into  a  defense 
or  explanation  of  his  work.  As  a  proof  of  this  I  have  been  a 
railroad  man  continuously  since  I  was  19  years  old  and  this 
is  the  first  letter  that  I  have  ever  written  that  in  any  way 
went  to  a  defense  of  the  railroads  of  the  country.  I  have  been 
in  favor  from  the  beginning  with  a  great  many  other  railroad 


LETTER  TO  THE   IOWA   RAILWAY   CLUB  151 

men  of  the  country  who  were  among  the  first  to  bring  the 
necessity  to  the  Government's  attention  of  proper  legislation 
for  bringing  about  uniformity,  in  all  service,  reasonable  and 
fixed  rates  without  rebates  with  proper  control  of  the  railroads 
of  the  United  States.  The  necessity  for  this  has  only  come  in 
the  last  few  years,  and  it  is  recognized  now  almost  universally 
by  railroad  men,  and  your  association  can  do  a  great  deal  to 
continue  it  in  a  sensible  and  profitable  way,  and  I  trust  at  this 
meeting  a  permanent  organization  of  the  railroad  men  will  be 
formed  for  this  state. 

Every  one  of  you  should  be  proud  of  the  fact  that  you 
have  been  a  part  of  and  did  your  duty  in  the  great  railroad 
field  that  numbers  many  of  our  ablest  men  and  officials  of  our 
country,  that  you  have  been  a  part  of  that  great  system  which 
employes  over  a  million  and  a  half  of  our  population,  and  as 
one  of  you,  the  highest  compliment  that  can  be  paid  me  when 
I  am  gone  is  that  I  was  over  fifty  years  one  of  the  railroad 
fraternity  of  the  United  States  and  did  my  duty  to  the  best 
of  my  ability. 

It  is  a  great  disappointment  to  me  that  I  cannot  be  present 
with  you,  to  first  grasp  by  the  hand  my  old  chief,  Peter  A.  Dey, 
whom  I  hold  to  be  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  railroad  men  of  our 
country,  one  of  the  squarest,  fairest  and  most  just  of  all  the 
men  I  ever  met,  and  the  two  Houses,  J.  E.  and  George,  who 
were  in  our  little  party  that  crossed  the  Mississippi  River 
in  1853. 


DESCRIPTION   OF   NORWICH   UNIVERSITY   GIVEN   AT 
THE  ANNUAL  BANQUET,  APRIL  3,  1893. 


We  have  with  us  this  evening,  besides  those  directly  eon- 
'nected  with  Norwich  University,  representatives  of  West  Point, 
Yale,  Harvard,  Dartmouth,  Hamilton  and  the  University  of 
Vermont,  as  well  as  a  delegation  from  the  Brooklyn  Society 
of  Vermonters.  Many  of  them  probably  do  not  know  much 
about  Norwich  University,  and,*  for  their  information,  I  have 
compiled  from  the  records  a  short  statement  which  I  will  read. 

Norwich  University  was  founded  by  Captain  Alden  Part- 
rigde,  in  1819.  Captain  Partridge  had  been  the  commandant 
of  West  Point,  and  left  there  to  found  a  literary,  scientific  and 
military  academy  at  Norwich,  Vermont,  and  there  started  trfe 
first  scientific,  classical  and  military  college  in  the  United 
States.  It  was  the  first  institution  to  lay  down  a  thoroughly 
scientific  course  of  study,  and,  up  to  the  time  of  the  Rebellion, 
it  was  the  only  one  which  embraced  a  thorough  military,  classi- 
cal and  scientific  course.  Its  second  commander  was  Colonel 
Truman  B.  Ransom,  who  left*  to  take  command  of  the  Ninth 
New  England  Regiment  in  the  war  with  Mexico,  and  who  was 
killed  while  leading  his  regiment  in  the  assault  upon  Chapul- 
tepec,  Mexico,  his  last  words  being,  "Forward,  the  Ninth!" 
The  University  has  never  had  one  cent  of  endowment.  It  has 
been  always  poor,  struggling  for  existence,  and  its  cadets  were 
mostly  poor  boys,  working  their  way  through  college  by  their 
own  efforts.  In  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  its  record,  according 
to  its  numbers,  is  far  beyond  any  civil  institution  of  learning 
in  the  country.  In  1864  its  roster,  as  partially  completed, 
showed  then  in  the  service,  twelve  generals,  twenty-five  colo- 
nels, forty  field  officers,  fifty-five  captains,  142  lieutenants  on 
the  Union  side.  There  were  a  great  many  on  the  Confederate 
side,  but  no  roster  of  them  has  ever  been  made. 

Its  roll  of  honor  includes  Harney,  Buell,  T.  E.  G.  Ransom, 
Terry,    Seymour,    Strong,    Milroy,    Louden,    Seth    Williams, 

—153— 


154  HOW   WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC 


Wright,  Baxter  of  the  Medical  Department,  Dewey,  Abbott, 
Converse,  Colvocoresses  and  others  of  the  Navy,  and  many 
other  equally  good  soldiers  and  sailors. 

General  Grant  often  paid  high  tribute  to  Norwich  Uni- 
versity, and,  in  his  promotion  and  commendation  of  its  cadets, 
gave  them  the  highest  command  and  great  honor,  placing  one 
of  them,  a  brigadier-general,  at  the  head  of  a  corps,  where 
he  remained  until  he  was  promoted  to  major-general,  while 
major-generals  in  the  same  army  were  commanding  divisions.. 

General  Sherman  never  failed,  when  Norwich  University 
was  spoken  of,  to  commend  it,  and  he  paid  it  the  highest  hon- 
ors by  giving  to  two  of  its  graduates  (I  think  then  the  young- 
est two  generals  of  their  rank  in  his  army)  the  command  of 
corps,  one  of  whom,  Ransom  (son  of  Colonel  Truman  B.  Ran- 
som, who  was  killed  at  the  assault  upon  Chapultepec)  died, 
while  leading  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps  in  the  oha&e  after 
Hood. 

In  speaking  of  this  institution  publicly  at  one  time,  while 
paying  tribute  to  one  of  its  cadets,  General  Sherman  spoke 
as  follows : 

"Norwich  University,  then,  as  since,  a  college  of  great 
renown.  This  military  school  at  one  time  almost  rivaled  the 
National  Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  and  there  many  a 
man*  who  afterwards  became  famous  in  the  Mexican  War  and 
Civil  War  first  drank  in  the  inspiration  of  patriotism  and 
learned  the  lessons  of  the  art  of  war,  which  enabled  him,  out 
of  unorganized  masses  of  men,  to  make  compact  companies, 
regiments  and  brigades  of  soldiers,  to  act  as  a  single  body  in 
the  great  game  of  war.  I  have  been  at  Norwich,  which  is 
situated  on  the  western  bank  of  the  beautiful  Connecticut 
River,  directly  opposite  the  venerable  University  of  Dart- 
mouth, and  believe  that  such  picturesque  surroundings  make 
an  impression  on  the  mind  which  purifies  and  imbues  it  with 
an  exalted  lover  of  nature  and  one's  country." 

Since  that  time  Norwich  University  has  removed  to  North- 
field,  Vermont. 

Norwich  University  is  today  more  prosperous  than  ever 
before.  The  State  of  Vermont  has  given  it  official  recognition, 
and  I  believe  that  each  State  Senator  of  their  legislature  is 


DESCRIPTION  OP  NORWICH   UNIVERSITY  155 

entitled  to  appoint  one  cadet  to  the  university,  and  that  the 
state  pays  for  his  tuition. 

There  are  a  few  of  us  who  meet  here  now  yearly  to  keep 
alive  the  spirit  and  principles  of  the  college,  holding  closely 
to  its  military  department.  It  has  stood  first  in  work  of  all 
the  military  colleges  of  our  country  and  ranks  next  to  West 
Point  in  the  graduates  it  turns  out  and  in  the  service  given 
in  the  Civil  "War. 


NORWICH  UNIVERSITY  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR,   AT  THE 
ANNUAL  BANQUET  IN  NEW  YORK  IN  1902. 


I  take  great  pleasure  in  welcoming  you  to  the  banquet  of 
the  New  York  Association  of  Norwich  University.  The  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  this  university  is  that  nine-tenths  of 
its  students  are  dependent  upon  their  own  efforts,  not  only 
for  their  education,  but  their  future  in  the  world,  and  there 
is  no  doubt  that  from  this  fact  so  many  of  its  cadets  have  been 
successful  in  all  the  walks  of  life.  It  is  a  military  college. 
Its  first  president  was  the  first  commandant  of  West  Point, 
and  from  its  organization  until  today  it  has  stood  first  in  the 
records  of  the  War  Department  as  compared  with  other  insti- 
tutions of  a  similar  character,  and  second  only  to  West  Point. 

In  the  Mexican  War  its  president,  Truman  R.  Ransom,  and 
most  of  the  cadets  entered  the  service  of  the  United  States. 
Ransom  was  colonel  of  the  New  England  regiment,  and  fell 
in  the  assault  upon  Chapultepec. 

In  the  Civil  War  90  per  cent  of  its  living  cadets  entered 
the  service,  mostly  as  officers,  on  one  side  or  the  other,  and, 
as  the  history  of  the  university  shows,  many  of  them  rose  to 
the  highest  rank  and  highest  commands  in.  the  service.  The 
university  received  the  commendations  of  Generals  Grant, 
Sherman,  Sheridan,  Thomas  and  others,  and  Norwich  Uni- 
versity cadets  were  always  selected  next  to  those  from  West 
Point,  for  important  and  difficult  demands.  There  are  present 
here  tonight  those  who  were  cadets  during  the  Civil  War  whose 
whole  class  enlisted.  In  fact,  the  whole  university  turned  out, 
suspending  the  functions  of  the. institution  for  two  years. 

In  the  Spanish  War  it  is  said  that  85  per  cent  of  its  living 
cadets  volunteered  for  service,  and  were  distinguished  on  many 
fields.  Many  of  them  are  still  in  the  service.  It  was  equally 
as  well  represented  in  our  navy  in  both  wars.  It  was  one  of 
its  cadets  that  struck  the  first  effective  blow  in  the  Spanish 
War,  and  another  cadet.  Commander  Colvocoresses,  who  com- 

—157— 


158  HOW   WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

manded  one  of  the  vessels,  after  the  naval  battle  at  Manila, 
went  alongside  the  Olympia  to  pay  his  respects  and  congratu- 
late Admiral  Dewey  upon  his  great  victory.  Admiral  Dewey, 
who  saw  Colvocoresses  as  he  came  alongside  in  his  launch, 
leaned  over  the  rail  and  said,  "Colv.,  old  N.  U.  is  ahead  yet," 
showing  no  matter  what  his  after  life  or  education  had  been, 
he  gave  the  credit  for  his  success  to  his  alma  mater. 

In  civil  life  its  cadets  have  greatly  distinguished  them- 
selves as  engineers,  and  in  other  professional  lines.  Probably 
I  can  say  that  there  is  no  one  who  has  had  as  many  of  the 
cadets  of  Norwich  University  under  him  as  I  have,  both  in 
the  Civil  War,  and  later  in  the  internal  improvements  of  the 
country,  and  to  my  knowledge  there  has  been  no  failure  among 
them.  They  have  universally  taken  their  places  and  held  them 
until  they  went  to  higher  positions.  The  university  today  is 
the  military  college  of  the  State  of  Vermont,  which  assigns  to 
it  a  representative  cadet  for  each  senatorial  district. 

I  believe  myself  there  is  no  education  so  beneficial  to  a 
young  man  as  that  which  gives  discipline,  respect  for  power 
and  obedience  to  orders,  and  the  drill  and  exercise  add  to  the 
health  of  the  student,  so  when  he  steps  out  into  the  world  to 
fight  his  way  he  is  better  equipped  than  those  who  have  gone 
through  college  without  this  physical  and  mental  training. 

I  am  happy  to  say  that  the  university  has  never  been  so 
prosperous  as  it  is  today.  The  interest  in  it  is  growing,  and 
it  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  the  old  cadets  to  see  and  feel  the 
high  esteem  in  which  it  is  held  throughout  the  country.  In 
comparison  with  other  colleges  few  in  numbers,  but  in  acts 
and  all  things  that  go  to  make  and  defend  a  great  country  we 
stand  the  peer  of  the  best  institutions  of  learning  our  country 
has  produced. 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  for  me  to  welcome  the  large  at- 
tendance at  this,  our  annual  banquet,  and  to  congratulate  you 
upon  the  prosperity  of  old  N.  XL,  and  also  upon  the  presence 
of  so  many  distinguished  officers  of  the  army,  which  indicates 
better  than  anything  else  the  interest  taken  in  the  growth  of 
the  military  colleges  of  the  country  by  the  War  Department 
and  regular  army,  and  the  appreciation  of  their  usefulness 
in  the  building  up  of  a  great  national  reserve,  such  as  other 


NORWICH  UNIVERSITY  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR  159 

countries  have,  that  can  be  placed  in  the  field  ready  for  service 
in  a  short  time.  Secretary  Root  was  the  first  to  fully  recognize 
the  advantage  to  the  army  of  ultilizing  their  work,  and  since 
his  time  Major-General  Bell  has  carried  out  and  developed 
his  .plans,  and  a  late  order  of  his  has  gone  forth  in  advance 
of  Secretary  Root,  as  it  places  our  honor  graduates  in  the  army 
without  mental  examination. 

I  saw  not  long  ago  a  criticism  from  some  officers  of"  the 
General  Staff  that  graduates  of  military  colleges  did  not  show 
a  disposition  to  enter  the  army  in  times  of  war,  and  citing  the 
Spanish  War  as  an  example,  there  being  but  few  officers  in 
the  volunteers  coming  from  the  military  colleges  and  schools. 
I  think  their  conclusion  does  not  show  a  very  deep  study  of 
the  organization  of  our  volunteer  force  in  the  Spanish  War, 
or  such  a  statement  would  not  have  been  made.  There  is  pres- 
ent here  tonight  a  former  distinguished  officer  of  the  regular 
army  who  had  charge  of  the  organization  of  the  volunteer 
force  in  the  Spanish  War  who  can  bear  me  out  in  the  state- 
ment that  the  policy  adopted  by  the  Government  at  the  insti- 
gation of  the  Governors  of  the  different  states  was  to  place 
in  the  service  intact  the  National  Guard  of  these  states,  and 
the  volunteer  forces  of  the  war  were  organized  on  that  plan. 
As  I  recollect,  the  regiments  mustered  into  the  service  took 
about  90  per  cent  of  their  officers  and  only  40  per  cent  of  their 
enlisted  men.  When  it  came  to  the  enlistments  for  the  Philip- 
pines, the  War  Department  took  that  directly  under  its  own 
charge,  and  selected  the  officers  of  the  regiments,  and  naturally 
and  justly  gave  preference  to  officers  and  enlisted  men  who 
had  shown  fitness  and  ability  in  the  service  in  Cuba,  and 
selected  them  as  officers  in  these  Philippine  regiments.  This 
almost  excluded  officers  outside  of  the  National  Guard  on 
account  of  the  limited  number  organized  and  mustered  in.  I 
think  it  would  have  been  much  fairer  to  the  military  colleges 
to  have  gone  back  to  the  methods  of  the  Civil  War  where 
nearly  all  enlistments  were  voluntary,  and  officered  by  the 
Governor  of  each  state.  At  that  time  there  was  in  the  North 
but  one  military  college  that  I  know  of,  and  that  was  Norwich 
University.  In  the  South  there  were  several.  One  that  I  know 
of  was  in  northern  Alabama,  in  the  Tennessee  Valley.    I  saw 


160  HOW  WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

it  burned  down  by  my  troops  in  the  campaign  up  the  Tennessee 
to  the  rear  of  Bragg  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  stores 
accumulated  by  him  along  the  Memphis  &  Charleston  Railroad. 
A  company  of  the  Seventh  Kansas  Cavalry  struck  the  military 
institute,  and  considering  that  it  came  within  my  orders  for 
the  destruction  of  material  and  supplies  that  could  be  used 
by  the  enemy,  burned  it  and  reported  it  officially  to  me.  As  I 
said,  I  saw  it  burn,  and  regretted  it,  as  it  was  contrary  to  my 
orders.  However,  since  the  war  I  have  tried  to  aid  its  trustees 
in  establishing  their  claim  for  payment  by  the  Government 
on  account  of  its  destruction.  There  was  another  military  in- 
stitution in  Virginia,  and  I  think  in  one  or  two  other  Southern 
states,  though  I  am  not  certain.  But  take  the  record  of  Nor- 
wich University  with  which  we  are  acquainted.  The  president 
had  just  compiled  from  our  records  a  roster  of  its  cadets  who 
served  in  the  Mexican  and  Civil  War,  and  here  it  is ;  I  will 
read  it : 

Major-generals 8 

Brevet  major-generals 2 

Other  general   officers 11 

Brevet  brigadier  generals 18 

Colonels 43 

Lieutenant-colonels 29 

Majors 37 

Captains 144 

First  lieutenants 72 

Second  lieutenants 42 

Surgeons    23 

Foreign  service 63 

Privates 60 

Admirals   1 

Rear   admirals 5 

Commodores   7 

Captains 5 

Commanders   3 

Lieutenants   11 

Ensigns    1 

Engineers    3 


NORWICH  UNIVERSITY  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR  161 

•   Midshipmen    14 

Chaplains 1 

Drill  masters — rank  not  known 3 

Warrant  officers  and  miscellaneous 8 

Commissioned  officers  with  war  service 485 

Total  with  war  service 584 

Total  with  militia  service  only 143 

All  with  military  or  naval  service 717 

The  enrollment  at  Norwich  University  for  the  thirty  years 
from  1835  to  1864  was  956,  and  427  of  these  served  in  the  Civil 
War  as  officers,  or  46  per  cent  of  the  total  enrollment.  Of 
course,  many  of  those  enrolled  during  the  thirty  years  had 
died,  so  the  percentage  should  really  be  much  larger. 

The  enrollment  at  the  Virginia  Military  Institute  for  same 
period  was  1,430.  Nine  hundred  and  eighty-six  of  its  cadets 
served  in  the  Civil  War,  of  which  563  were  commissioned  offi- 
cers, or  68  per  cent.  I  have  no  doubt  in  case  of  war  and  the 
opportunity  was  offered,  the  military  colleges  would  furnish 
as  large  a  percentage  as  they  did  in  the  Civil  War. 

The  attendance  at  Norwich  University  up  to  the  time  of 
the  Civil  War  was  seldom  more  than  fifty,  and  I  think  it  is 
fair  to  state  that  no  institution  of  learning  ever  turned  out 
such  a  proportion  of  its  students  to  serve  its  country,  and  none 
other  can  show  the  distinction  they  attained  in  the  service. 
Although  I  do  not  state  it  as  a  fact,  I  believe  it  compares 
favorably  with  West  Point.  If  you  go  into  civil  life,  into  the 
scientific  professions,  you  will  find  that  the  graduates  of  the 
military  colleges,  in  proportion  to  their  numbers,  hold  the  most 
important  positions  and  have  accomplished  the  most  important 
work.  If  you  go  into  the  development  of  the  country  and  its 
internal  improvements  you  will  find  these  graduates  very 
prominent.  In  the  Civil  War  General  Grant  and  General 
Sherman  paid  their  tribute  to  them,  not  only  in  words,  but 
in  deeds.  When  it  came  to  the  selection  of  officers  for  important 
commands,  especially  independent  commands,  they  took  first 
the  graduates  of  West  Point,  next  the  graduates  of  these  col- 
leges. No  matter  what  you  read  or  hear,  in  the  army  and  navy, 
as  in  all  professions  and  industries,  the  educated  soldier  must 
come  to  the  front  first.    The  rest  have  to  learn  from  years  of 


162  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

experience  what  they  know  from  the  beginning,  and  for  that 
reason  in  building  up  a  great  national  reserve  for  our  country, 
(which  we  are  bound  to  have),  each  year  our  military  schools 
will  become  a  great  and  prominent  factor,  and  will  be  more 
and  more  utilized  by  the  Government. 

I  am  opposed  to  war,  and  will  go  as  far  as  any  man  to 
prevent  it,  but  am  a  firm  believer  that  peace  can  only  be  pre- 
served by  having  an  army  and  navy,  and  a  reserve  that  can 
be  put  into  the  field  ready  to  meet  any  force  it  is  possible  for 
any  country  to  bring  against  us.  This  will  insure  peace,  and 
I  hope  ere  long  a  permanent  agreement  will  be  made  by  all 
nations  to  arbitrate  and  carry  out  the  plans  of  our  Govern- 
ment which  were  so  forcibly  and  ably  presented  at  the  Hague 
conference. 

As  to  the  standing  of  these  military  colleges,  I  call  your 
attention  to  the  reports  of  inspection  made  by  the  War  Depart- 
ment in  1903  on  Norwich  University.  They  are  too  long  to 
read,  but  nearly  all  the  questions  asked  by  the  War  Depart- 
ment and  General  Staff  are  answered  favorably,  and  the  final 
statement  for  1907  is  as  follows : 

"The  general  excellent  condition  of  the  military  depart- 
ment of  this  university  reported  last  year  has  been  maintained. 
The  work  here  is  very  satisfactory,  and  the  college  authorities 
deserve  all  possible  encouragement  and  assistance  from  the 
War  Department  in  their  efforts  to  maintain  their  high  military 
standing.  Lieutenant  Chapman's  seelction  for  this  duty  was  a 
very  fortunate  one. 

"MICHAEL  J.  LENIHAN, 

"Captain  General  Staff, 

"Inspector." 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  charitable  people  who  give 
large  sums  for  the  maintenance  and  endowment  of  colleges 
and  schools  of  the  country,  seldom,  if  ever,  give  to  the  military 
college,  so  that  young  boys  who  enter  these  schools  go  there 
from  an  instinct  or  love  of  the  military  feature  of  them,  and 
are.  therefore,  of  necessity  bound  to  make  good  soldiers  and 
good  officers.  Most  of  those  who  go  to  these  colleges  have  to 
work  their  way  through,  and  seek  employment  on  their  merits 


NORWICH  UNIVERSITY  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR  163 

alone,  and  are  taught  lessons  they  never  forget.  I  have  in 
view  an  object  lesson  of  this  kind  which  occurred  on  one  of 
our  roads  during  this  last  fall.  Our  trainmen  struck  at  noon 
one  day  without  any  warning  to  us,  and  left  their  trains  stand- 
ing. When  our  employes  learned  this,  under  the  lead  of  a 
graduate  of  Norwich  University  who  is  an  employe  of  the 
road,  they  volunteered  to  man  the  trains  and  run  them  for  us. 
I  think  we  were  not  obliged  to  bring  in  any  additional  men, 
and  in  about  two  weeks,  the  strikers,  seeing  the  spirit  and 
esprit  de  corps  in  the  employes  of  the  company,  returned  to 
their  work  without  obtaining  any  of  the  demands  they  had 
made.  It  is  the  education  received  in  these  colleges  that  brings 
about  an  interest  in  their  employer's  work.  Its  graduates  are 
fitted  for  any  position  in  life.  First,  because  of  the  training 
which  gives  them  strength  and  health  and  second,  because 
daily  they  are  taught  honesty  and  industry,  respect  to  author- 
ity, loyalty  to  the  Government,  and  finally  absolute  obedience 
to  orders. 


V       -M^->% 


"':<' 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  VERMONT  SOCIETY  OF  NEW 
YORK  ON  NORWICH  UNIVERSITY,  1903. 


For  your  kindly  greeting,  and  the  honor  you  have  con- 
ferred upon  me,  by  electing  me  a  honorary  member  of  your 
society,  you  have  my  grateful  thanks. 

When  a  young  boy  I  spent  four  years  among  the  green 
hills,  beautiful  valleys,  and  sweet,  honest,  hearty  homes  of 
Vermont.  I  thought  then  they  were  years  of  hard  toil,  of  vexa- 
tions and  of  submission  to  older  boys  who  wore  brass  buttons, 
and  sat  down  upon  me  severely,  and  I  longed  to  see  them  over ; 
but  from  that  day  to  this  they  were  my  happiest  hours,  free 
from  care  and  responsibility,  and  for  the  benefit  I  received,  and 
the  lessons  they  taught  me,  for  the  discipline  in  mind,  thought 
and  action,  and  the  respect  to  authority  that-  was  drilled  into 
me,  I  am  here  tonight,  not  only  to  thank  the  State  of  Vermont, 
but  to  say  a  few  words  for  the  institution  that  sent  me  forth 
so  well  equipped  to  meet  the  world.     Bancroft  Library 

The  Green  Mountain  Boys  have  not  only  always  faced  the 
enemy,  but  have  made  a  record  on  the  battlefield,  second  to 
no  other  state.  Vermont's  killed  and  wounded  in  battle,  the 
success  of  her  troops  and  the  ability  with  which  they  were 
commanded  in  each  engagement  is  known  to  you  all.  She 
stands,  if  I  remember  rightly,  second  on  the  roster,  not  only 
in  killed  and  wounded  in  a  regiment,  but  in  the  largest  per- 
centage of  the  killed  and  wounded,  according  to  the  number 
of  troops  furnished  by  each  state. 

Among  the  leading  officers  of  the  army  the  question  has 
often  been  discussed  why  this  was  so.  I  think  it  was  that  her 
troops  were  so  well  commanded.  This  came  from  the  fact 
that  for  forty-two  years  before  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  she 
had  a  standing  object  lesson  in  the  necessity  and  benefits  of 
a  military  education  before  her  youth  in  Norwich  University. 

The  history  of  that  university  and  its  record  in  war  and 
peace,  will  demonstrate  to  you  one  of  the  principal  reasons 

—165— 


166  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

that  has  placed  our  little  state  of  Vermont  so  high  on  the  roll 
of  honor  of  this  nation,  and  when  I  recite  it  to  you  I  know  it 
will  receive  at  your  hands  the  credit  due  to  it  from  the  Sons 
of  Vermont. 

Captain  Alden  Partridge,  the  commandant  of  West  Point, 
left  there  in  1819,  to  found  a  literary,  scientific  and  military 
academy  at  Norwich,  Vermont,  and  there  started  the  first 
private  scientific,  classical  and  military  college  in  the  United 
States. 

It  was  incorporated  as  Norwich  University  in  1834,  and 
was  modelled  after  West  Point.  It  was  the  first  institution  to 
lay  down  a  thoroughly  scientific  course  of  study,  and,  up  to 
the  time  of  the  Rebellion,  is  was  the  only  one  which  embraced 
a  thoroughly  military,  classical  and  scientific  course. 

From  the  time  of  its  foundation  until  today,  in  its  military 
and  scientific  features,  it  has  stood  second  to  our  national 
academy.  It  is  by  its  charter  non-sectarian.  The  dicipline,  dis- 
tinction and  duties  of  an  officer  and  a  soldier  are  maintained 
throughout  its  course. 

The  university  is  maintained  on  less  than  $5,000  a  year.  It 
has  never  had  one  cent  endowment.  It  has  always  been  poor, 
struggling  for  existence,  and  its  cadets  were  mostly  poor  boys, 
working  their  way  through  college  by  their  own  efforts.  The 
expense  of  a  cadet,  including  everything,  it  not  necessarily  over 
$200  a  year,  and  of  cadets  appointed  by  the  state,  not  over 
$150;    this  alone  teaches  economy,  industry  and  self-reliance. 

The  cadets  wear  a  uniform  patterned  after  West  Point, 
thus  avoiding  extravagance  in  dress.  Their  military  duties 
and  studies  take  every  hour  in  the  day  from  6  a.  in.  to  9  p.  m., 
preventing  idleness  and  negligence.  The  drill  and  exercise 
make  hearty,  healthy  men.  who  often  march  thirty  to  forty 
miles  per  day  carrying  the  equipment  of  a  soldier. 

In  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  its  record  is  far  beyond  any 
civil  institution  of  learning  in  the  country.  In  1864,  its  roster, 
as  partially  completed,  showed  then  in  the  service,  twelve 
generals,  twenty-five  colonels,  forty  field  officers,  fifty-five  cap- 
tains, 142  lieutenants,  and  many  non-commissioned  officers  and 
privates  on  the  Union  side. 


ADDRESS    ON   NORWICH    UNIVERSITY  167 

There  were  a  great  many  on  the  Confederate  side,  but 
no  roster  of  them  has  ever  been  made.  During  the  AVar  of  the 
Rebellion  the  undergraduates  enlisted  so  fast  that  for  two 
years  there  was  no  commencement  at  the  university.  The  sec- 
ond commander  of  the  university  was  Colonel  Truman  B.  Ran- 
som, who  resigned  to  take  command  of  the  Ninth  New  England 
Regiment  in  the  war  with  Mexico,  and  who  was  killed  while 
leading  his  regiment  in  the  assault  upon  Chapultepec,  Mexico, 
his  last  words  being,  "Forward,  the  Ninth!" 

The  roll  of  honor  includes  Harney  Buel,  the  three  Ransoms, 
Seymour,  Strong,  Milroy,  Louden,  Seth  Williams,  Bryant, 
Wright,  Baxter  of  the  Medical  Department,  Abbott,  Converse 
and  others  of  the  navy,  and  many  other  equally  good  soldiers 
and  sailors. 

General  Grant  often  paid  high  tribute  to  Norwich  Uni- 
versity, and  in  his  promotion  and  commendation  of  its  cadets, 
gave  them  the  highest  command  and  great  honor,  placing  one 
of  them,  a  brigadier-general,  at  the  head  of  a  corps,  where  he 
remained  until  he  was  promoted  to  major-general,  while  major- 
generals  in  the  same  army  were  commanding  divisions. 

General  Sherman  never  failed,  when  Norwich  University 
was  spoken  of,  to  commend  it,  and  he  paid  it  the  highest  hon- 
ors by  giving  two  of  its  graduates  (I  think  then  the  two  young- 
est generals  of  their  rank  in  his  army),  the  command  of  corps, 
one  of  whom,  Ransom  (son  of  Truman  B.  Ransom,  who  was 
killed  at  the  ^ault  upon  Chapultepec),  died  while  leading 
the  Seventh  Army  Corps  in  the  chase  after  Hood. 

In  speaking  of  this  institution  publicly  at  one  time,  while 
paying  a  tribute  to  one  of  its  cadets,  General  Sherman  spoke 
as  follows : 

"Norwich  University,  then  as  since,  a  college  of  great 
renown.  This  military  school  at  one  time  almost  rivaled  the 
National  Military  Academy  at  West  P@int,  and  there  many  a 
man  who  afterwards  became  famous  in  the  Mexican  War  and 
Civil  War,  first  drank  in  the  inspiration  of  patriotism  and 
learned  the  lesson  of  the  art  of  war,  which  enabled  him,  out 
of  unorganized  masses  of  men,  to  make  compact  companies, 
regiments  and  brigades  of  soldiers  to  act  as  a  single  body  in  the 
great  game  of  war. 


168  HOW  WE   BUILT   THE   UNION   PACIFIC 

"I  have  been  at  Norwich,  which  is  situated  on  the  western 
bank  of  the  beautiful  Connecticut  River,  directly  opposite  the 
venerable  University  of  Dartmouth,  and  believe  that*such  pic- 
turesque surroundings  make  an  impression  on  the  mind  which 
purines  and  imbues  it  with  an  exalted  love  of  nature  and  one's 
country. ' ' 

Next  to  its  military  renown,  its  cadets  have  won  great 
distinction  as  leaders  in  the  development  of  this  continent ; 
they  explored  for  our  great  railways  not  only  in  our  own 
country,  but  in  others,  especially  in  South  America ;  they  con- 
nected the  Atlantic  with  the  Pacific  with  that  great  continental 
system^flrst  built,  which  has  added  so  much  to  our  civilization, 
wealth  and  progress.  Their  aid  and  advice  have  been  sought 
in  most  of  the  great  works  of  Europe  and  China ;  as  civil  and 
mining  engineers  they  have  gone  over,  through  and  deep  down 
in  all  of  our  great  mountain  ranges — the  Andes  and  the  Alps. 
One  of  its  cadets,  Professor  Jackman,  whose  mathematical 
mind  has  won  him  great  renown,  in  1846  conceived  and  pub- 
lished the  plan  of  an  ocean  magnetic  telegraph  cable,  remark- 
ably like  that  laid  in  1858.  It  is  believed  by  many  that  Cyrus 
W.  Field  received  his  first  idea  of  the  ocean  cable  from  Pro- 
fessor Jackman 's  publications. 

In  1884  the  State  of  Vermont  enacted  a  law,  giving  each 
State  Senator  the  right  to  appoint  a  cadet  from  his  district 
to  Norwich  University,  and  appropriated  $50 japr  year  for  his 
tuition  and  room  rent. 

This  state  recognition  made  it  a  State  Military  University ; 
added  greatly  to  its  standing  and  the  "esprit  de  corps"  of  its 
cadets. 

Colonel  E.  P.  Hughes,  Inspector  General  of  the  United 
States  Army,  in  his  official  report  to  the  Secretary  of  "War,  says, 
"The  Military  Department  has  been  a  marked  feature  of  this 
institution  ever  since  its  establishment  in  1819,  by  Captain 
Alden  Partridge,  of  the  Corps  of  Engineers,  the  military  sys- 
tem has  been  carried  into  the  entire  duty  of  this  college,  and 
the  company  officers  have  charge  of  their  subordinates  in  the 
dormitories  as  well  as  on  the  parade  ground.  The  officers  who 
are  members  of  the  senior  class  have  a  control  and  influence 


ADDRESS   ON   NORWICH   UNIVERSITY  169 

over  the  lower  classes  that  make  itself  felt  in  the  management 
of  the  establishment. 

"The  Military  Department  can  have  no  higher  encomium 
than  that  supplied  by  its  own  record  in  the  war.  I  know  of 
no  other  institution  in  our  country  that  can  present  such  a 
striking  and  practical  example  of  the  spirit  of  loyalty  and 
patriotism  instilled  into  its  students.  This  institution  is  send- 
ing out  each  year  a  class  of  men  who  are  well  fitted,  both 
practically  and  theoretically,  to  assume  command  of  battalions 
should  any  necessity  arise  for  such  services.  Although  the 
numbers  are  small,  it  is  due  the  institution  to  say  that  in  its 
military  system,  discipline  and  instruction,  it  stands  at  the 
head  of  all  the  colleges  in  this  inspection." 

Lieutenant  Kimball,  the  officer  detailed  by  the  Secretary 
of  War,  for  duty  at  the  university,  and  its  commandant,  in  his 
report  for  18j)3,  says,  "The  year's  work  included  a  thorough 
course  of  drills  in  all  arms  of  the  service.  The  cadets  were  in 
camp  during  June  with  three  drills  a  day.  During  this  time 
only  one  cadet  was  under  arrest.  Fifty-five  recitations  in  mil- 
itary duty  and  science  were  had.  The  cadets  lived  according 
to  the  customs  of  our  military  services,  and  it  established  be- 
tween their  officers  and  privates,  habits  of  respect  and  official 
courtesy  which  they  carry  into  their  future  lives." 

The  successfully  maintaining  of  such  institutions  grows 
more  difficult  each  year.  The  natural  tendency  of  young  men, 
especially  those  with  ample  means,  is  to  the  larger  colleges,  but 
if  they  would  stop  and  think  a  moment,  or  could  have  the 
experience  of  graduates  in  after  life,  they  would  learn  that 
for  their  own  benefit,  smaller  colleges,  more  remote  from  large 
cities,  from  their  temptations,  are  the  best.  In  large  colleges 
the  student 's  identity  is  absolutely  lost ;  they  spend  four  years 
without  individuality,  and  generally  without  ambition,  but 
in  smaller  institutions  of  learning  they  are  measured,  tested 
individually;  competition  gives  them  favorable  recognition 
by  the  faculty ;  lifts  the  student  to  a  higher  plane  and  greater 
efforts,  and  when  he  graduates,  he  carries  with  him  a  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  entire  corps — his  record,  individually, 
and  success  come  to  him  every  year  in  his  life. 


170  HOW  WE   BUILT  THE  UNION   PACIFIC 

Last  June  I  attended  the  commencement  of  Norwich  Uni- 
versity at  Northfield,  Vermont.  The  Governor  and  his  staff, 
in  uniform  were  present,  the  Governor  delivering  to  each 
cadet  his  diploma,  and  speaking  appropriate  words  before  an 
immense  audience,  making  it  a  state  occasion.  It  brought  to- 
gether delegates  from  different  colleges,  the  army  officers  sta- 
tioned in  and  near  Vermont,  and  distinguished  guests.  They 
listened  to  the  graduating  class,  witnessed  the  drills  in  all 
the  arms  of  the  service,  and  it  was  the  unanimous  decision 
of  all,  that  the  soldierly  bearing  and  discipline,  the  respect 
shown  to  rank  and  authority,  and  the  scholarly  attainments 
of  the  cadets  were  a  great  credit  to  the  university,  and  a  great 
honor  to  the  state. 

I  had  not  visited  the  university  since  I  bid  it  good-bye 
in  1851.  I  saw  much  to  give  me  encouragement,  notwithstand- 
ing the  great  difficulty  under  which  it  labors,  by  having  to 
earn  by  day  labor  every  dollar  it  spends  each  year.  It  is  more 
prosperous  now  than  ever.  In  ten  years  it  has  quadrupled  its 
attendance,  has  built  a  new  hall,  added  materially  to  its  scien- 
tific and  engineering  appliances,  has  paid  off  its  mortgages, 
and  is  free  from  debt.  Has  as  commandant  an  officer  detailed 
by  the  United  States,  who  takes  great  interest  in  its  success. 
It  needs  badly  a  new  drill  hall,  gymnasium  and  steam  heating 
for  all  its  buildings,  large  additions  to  its  electrical  and  engi- 
neering department,  and  more  instructors.  Those  there  now 
are  overworked.  They  hardly  have  a  moment  leisure  from 
early  morning  until  late  at  night.  In  fact,  after  their  duties 
with  the  cadets  are  over,  they  have  to  attend  to  the  corre- 
spondence and  business  of  the  university. 

To  obtain  all  this  on  a  permanent  basis,  the  university 
must  have  a  permanent  income.  From  endowment,  scholar- 
ships, in  fact,  from  every  source  that  our  colleges  are  helped. 
Norwich  University  stands  alone  of  all  the  colleges  in  Ver- 
mont, without  endowment.  Vermont  has  been  fortunate  lately 
in  the  large  sums  donated  to  its  institutions  of  learning,  which 
is  rapidly  building  them  up,  and,  I  appeal  here  tonight  to  the 
Sons  of  Vermont,  as  you  have  made  me  one  of  you,  to  place 
Norwich  University  in  a  position  in  the  state  financially,  that 
it  holds  in  the  nation  intellectually. 


ADDRESS    ON   NORWICH   UNIVERSITY  171 

The  record  the  university  has  made  for  her  state  on  the 
battlefield,  in  the  inaugurating,  building  and  managing  the 
great  enterprise  of  the  country,  entitles  her  to  your  serious 
consideration. 

If  you  want  to  do  honor  to  your  state,  and  credit  to  your- 
self for  all  time,  let  me  say  to  you,  it  is  best  done  by  aiding 
old  N.  U.  It  is  no  disparagement  to  others  to  state  that  it  has 
a  wider  reputation  than  any  of  the  institutions  of  learning 
in  Vermont  on  account  of  its  military  and  scientific  record, 
and  the  Sons  of  Vermont  may.  rest  assured  that  every  dollar 
planted  to  its  benefit  now  or  in  the  future  will  be  heard  from 
more  effectually  hereafter  than  in  the  past,  for  there  will  be 
as  great  fields  for  her  cadets  in  war,  science  and  industries, 
national  and  international  developments  as  has  occurred  in 
the  past,  and  what  Vermonter  or  his  descendant  will  not  be 
proud  of  the  fact  that  it  was  his  aid  that  enabled  its  cadets 
to  so  distinguish  themselves,  that  as  honored  a  name,  and  as 
great  a  commander  as  Grant,  and  as  great  a  general,  strategist 
and  engineer  as  Sherman,  gave  great  honor,  and  upheld  and 
applauded  before  the  world'  the  deeds  of  the  cadets  of  Norwich 
University,  and  gave  the  credit  for  them  to  the  education  and 
training  they  received  at  Norwich  University. 


